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UK higher education institutions are now expected to be able to demonstrate that they are adhering to the Code of Practice for the Assurance of Academic Quality and Standards in Higher Education in Placement Learning. The responsibility for ensuring that a placement provides an adequate opportunity for its intended learning outcomes rests with the educational institution. This paper draws on the author's experience of the management and evaluation of placements in the construction sector. In recognition of the increasingly global nature of the business, a placement programme has been developed to meet the particular challenges of students operating in multidisciplinary and multicultural environments. Participation in the European Commission's Leonardo da Vinci Vocational Training Programmes and pilot projects has enabled the identification of further criteria for evaluating and disseminating experience gained in work-based learning across the frontiers of language and culture. However, the paper also identifies problems peculiar to the UK market for construction professions and higher education programmes in construction-related disciplines. A study by Northumbria University highlighted challenges for both industry and higher education arising from economic pressures on students and the positioning of construction-related courses in the higher education market. Given the global nature of the construction business, it is clear that there are significant benefits to be gained from taking a global view of relevant issues. © 2004, © 2004 SAGE Publications.

Increasing emphasis is being placed in dentistry, as in other areas, on outcome-based education and on the specification of learning outcomes. This paper describes the adaptation for dentistry of the medical three circle model as described by Harden to specify learning outcomes. The model offers an effective and user-friendly format based on the three dimensions of the work of a dentist. What the dentist is able to do ('doing the right thing'), how the dentist approaches their practice ('doing the thing right'), and the dentist as a professional ('the right person doing it'). The model also facilitates curriculum and examination planning, reconciles tensions between vocational and academic education and is readily understood and accepted by students and teachers.

Business skills, particularly in the areas of science, engineering and technology (SET) and small firm development are becoming increasingly important. The vocational skills student learns can be augmented by an understanding of how business operates as well as an appreciation that enterprise skills can be applied within an organisation i.e. acting as an “intrapreneur”. Universities prepare students for many of the “professions” such as medicine, engineering, law and accountancy. Many other disciplines such as healthcare, social sciences and the sciences also require a professional attitude to be adopted. However, new graduates generally begin their post-university career in a form of apprenticeship where their professional skills are developed, often via a pre-registration period before achieving, for example, for engineers, chartered status. After that stage is reached, and with a few years work experience, they may move on to form practices or partnerships of their own. Based on the principle that business skills development, particularly in the SET disciplines, is likely to have a positive impact on the competitiveness of existing SET organisations, as well as encourage the creation of new, innovative knowledge firms, this paper aims to document the experience of introducing and embedding entrepreneurship education into vocational disciplines at Heriot-Watt University, with a key objective being to provide a model which other institutions may find useful. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Over the last 20 years, the voice of business and its impact upon Australian vocational education have transformed. These changes comprise the reluctance of enterprise to be involved; industry determining what is taught and assessed, and how; the principles for administering vocational education; and attempts to use vocational education to reform the schooling system. These transformations and government complicity in them are enmeshed in the restructuring of the Australian economy, allegedly in response to an increasingly competitive and globalised economy. They were also facilitated by vocational education continuing to be misunderstood and having low status. However, the expanded leadership role afforded to Australian business has not been matched by its purchase on the complexity of educational issues and practice, including the need to encompass other interests (e.g. small business and students). While vocational education has become the business of business, it seems it is business not understood. Even in addressing its own purposes (i.e. work readiness), business has demonstrated a preference for ideological and näive imperatives that have proved inadequate. Along the way, the goals for vocational education and standing of its institutions, practitioners and students have all been transformed, probably to their detriment.

Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States and a lineal descendant of an infirmary for slaves, accepted its first African-American resident, Dr. Ubert Conrad Vincent, in 1918. This occurred at a time when many medical centers were not accepting African-American residents. At the end of WWII, one-third of the accredited medical schools still barred African Americans. However, Bellevue Hospital continued to train African-American residents. Between the 1920s and 1940s four African Americans matriculated at Bellevue Hospital. There were six in the 1950s, four in the 1960s, and 25 in the 1970s. By the 1980s, 40 African Americans matriculated, and between 1990 and 1995, 61 matriculated. Despite its historic first, Bellevue lagged slightly behind the national average. While the number of African-American residents occupying U.S. residency slots increased from 2.8% in 1978 to 6.5% in 1996, African Americans comprised 3.6% of residency slots at Bellevue between 1985-1995. Currently, only 7% of practicing physicians and 5% in faculty positions are latino, African-American, and Native American. Increasing the number of under-represented minority (URM) physicians is important to the United States, as URM physicians are more likely to serve the poor and uninsured, therefore improving the overall healthcare of the underprivileged. A study by the Association of American Medical Colleges indicated that minority medical school graduates were five times more likely to report that they planned to serve minority populations than other graduates. In their position paper, the American College of Physicians expressed the belief that increasing the number of URM physicians will help reduce healthcare disparities that can hurt minority populations and lead to poor health outcomes. The Supreme Court acknowledged the importance of racial diversity by upholding the University of Michigan affirmative action admissions policy in its June 2003 ruling. URM physicians are needed not only to serve minority populations but also to serve as mentors and role models for prospective and current students. The first African-American resident to graduate from the Bellevue Residency Program did indeed treat the underserved, as Dr. Vincent founded the Vincent Sanatorium, dedicated to treating African-American patients, and training African-American nurses and doctors. Over the course of the 20th century, Bellevue Hospital has trained increasing numbers of African-American physicians. It is hoped that, like their predecessor, Dr. Vincent, they will provide care to underserved communities and to the community as a whole, as well as serve as role models for generations to come.

In Australia, as in many other countries, initiatives are constantly being developed which aim to assist school students’ transition into work. One such initiative, which was introduced towards the end of the 1990s, was the introduction of school-based apprenticeships and traineeships, often referred to by the umbrella term “school-based new apprenticeships” (SBNAs). students taking part in these programs, normally in the final two years of schooling (Years 11 and 12), combine part-time work, study towards a vocational education and training (VET) qualification, and normal attendance at school. This paper reports on the first large-scale research study of school-based apprentices and trainees, which was carried out in late 2001 through a survey of students involved in the programs. The survey was carried out in the three Australian States with the highest numbers of school-based apprentices and trainees, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. The paper commences with a description of the nature of school-based apprenticeships and a description of their introduction and rapid growth. It then gives an overview of the young people's jobs, their learning and training, and concludes by discussing four problematic areas. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

The purpose of this study, in an environment of Internet project-based learning, is to undertake research on the effects of thinking styles on learning transfer. In this study, we establish an environment that incorporates project-based learning and Internet. Within this environment, we divide our sample of elementary school students into four groups: Executive Group, Legislative Group, Judicial Group, and Mixed Group. Taking the learning of 'Natural Science' as an example, we investigate the effects of different thinking styles on learning transfer. The results of this study are: (a) significant differences between the near transfer of the Executive Group and the Legislative Group, (b) no significant differences in far transfer are found among groups of different thinking styles, (c) the near transfer of the Mixed Group is superior to that of the Legislative Group and the Judicial Group, and (d) the far transfer of the Mixed Group is superior to that of the Legislative Group.

This study determined the reliability of ratings and consistency of descriptions generated by experienced field instructors using only their acquired practice wisdom as a framework to evaluate students. Ten field instructors independently divided 20 student vignettes into as many categories as necessary to reflect various levels of student performance, described their categories, and ranked the individual vignettes within each category. The independently generated categories and their descriptions were very similar across instructors, and the inter-rater reliability was very high both for the placement of vignettes into categories (0.77) and the rankings (0.83). © by the Council on Social Work Education, Inc.

The concept of individual demand for continuing training needs to be defined carefully in the UK context. Unlike other European countries such as France, initial training takes place either in companies or by young workers undertaking courses at a college of further education. They therefore appear as employees rather than as full-time students in the education system. This makes comparison of statistics on continuing training problematic at European level. For the purposes of this chapter, continuing training refers only to the training of adults in employment and not the initial training of young people even though this may be funded by the employer. © Individual contributors, 2002.

What are the concepts and theories behind current debates about education? This comprehensive introduction to philosophy of education discusses issues that are of current public interest and debate. It locates education at the heart of questions concerned with culture, ethics, politics, economics and shows how key educational issues have to be approached in a contextual way. Written in a clear and accessible manner with current issues in mind the book covers: the curriculum teaching and learning educational research assessment moral, personal and civic education autonomy and multicultural issues in a liberal society education and work privatisation and markets This book will be particularly useful to students on Education Studies courses, to those preparing for a career in teaching, to students of politics and to serving teachers undertaking further study in education. © 2004 Christopher Winch and John Gingell. All rights reserved.