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The plight of students with disabilities has been in the spotlight for several years now. Recent legislation has made vocational training, including students with disabilities, a mainstay in most secondary schools. While there are studies that prove that training in a vocational setting does have a positive influence on students with learning disabilities, there are still ways in which the results are less impressive. With the increased number of students with learning disabilities not being able to maintain adequate time on the job, concerned parents and educators seek answers to unending questions. Some questions that come to the minds of many are such as (a) when a student with a learning disability cannot find a job or keep a job, what does he/she do with their time, and (b) how does this affect their life (i.e. physically or mentally)? In as much as the effort to overcome disability is actively sought for by many, the effects of learning disabilities on young peoples’ lives are unlikely to be eliminated entirely. Whereas disability implies a reduction in function that may influence the outcomes of people for a lifetime, this article reveals interviews from three students who have discussed their own problems with unemployment or underemployment, their dreams of success, and their worries about the future. The conclusion examines implications for teacher education and special education in general. © 1999 Journal of Vocational Education and Training. All right reserved.

University adult education, with its roots in the Victorian reform of the ancient universities, was conceived and consumed as a political project and, until the present generation, has always carried progressive political connotations. This article surveys its history by examining four different phases through which it moved, each associated with a different form of political commitment. Initially intended by reforming Liberals of the 187os and 1880s to make responsible democratic citizens of the working class, after 1900 the adult education movement altered its focus in order to educate the emergent labour movement for the exercise of power. This in turn was challenged by a more class-conscious educational project, embodied in the Plebs League and Labour Colleges during the interwar period. In each of these forms, education was understood to have social ends, and students were encouraged to see themselves as members of quasi-political movements. Since the 1950s, however, under many influences, the special association of adult education and politics has been questioned and lost its relevance as new forms of continuing education have emphasised strictly personal development and vocational training. This article examines an educational tradition now at an end, which caught up many leading progressive intellectuals and in which education was axiomatically political.

The purpose of this study was to determine if work ethic differed for a sample of 152 selected 9th-grade students categorized by risk of school failure and by gender. Work ethic attributes were measured using the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (Petty, 1993). Results of a two-way multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant work ethic differences in main effects of at-risk classification and gender for dependent variables of interpersonal skills, initiative, and being dependable. Interaction effects were not significant. Underlying constructs indicated that adolescents with greater degrees of risk were less dependable and that girls in the study were more dependable than boys.

Research on invention education involving adolescents appears infrequently. The study reported in this article involves an evaluation of an intensive, case-based summer program on invention and design that students completed the previous year. Data gathered through qualitative methods were categorized, and general and specific themes were extracted. students reported that group interactions and the hands-on aspects of the course provided the most significant benefit during the ensuing school year. Several students gained insight into career preferences and intellectual and interpersonal strengths and weaknesses, but most continued to show little appreciation for the role of reflection in inventive processes. Student conceptions from the 1-year study provide additional evidence in support of the previous conclusion that students see reflection as a strictly evaluative process. Implications for the design and evaluation of similar programs are discussed.

Although youths are often confined in jobs that allow minimal gains in earnings, the authors used quantitative data to examine whether any kinds of job contact allow youths to get jobs that lead to later higher earnings and use qualitative data to illustrate school job contacts and the ways they can help disadvantaged groups. Analyzing data from High School and Beyond, the authors found that most types of contacts have little effect on early earnings, but relatives and school contacts place students in jobs that lead to higher earnings nine years later (at age 28). Black, young women, and high-achieving youths less often get their jobs from realtives but more often get jobs through school contacts. The findings indicate the theoretical importance of social contacts and previously overlooked ways that high schools improve the work-entry process for youths, especially blacks and females.

Health education graduate students were surveyed to assess perceptions of their professional responsibility to be role models of healthy behaviors, characteristics of a professional role model, and related socializing experiences during professional preparation. A total of 233 randomly selected health education graduate students participated in this study nationwide. Significant inverse associations were found between students’ year in graduate school and sense of excellence as a role model, graduate program satisfaction, and professional commitment (all ps < 0.05). students'sense of professional marketability and competence to role model were statistically significant in predicting their perception that role modeling healthy behaviors is a professional responsibility, F(2, 215) = 110.25, p = 0.00001. Positive associations also were found between students’ desire to improve fitness behavior, nutrition, and weight and/or body fat ratio with self-ratings as role models (all ps< 0.05). Implications for the profession and preparation are provided. © 1999, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

This article considers social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) as a vantage point from which to view the school-to-work transition process. Rather than emphasizing the period just before high school graduation, SCCT focuses on 6 developmentally linked themes that unfold throughout the school years. An emphasis on these themes (formation of self-efficacy and outcome beliefs, interest development, interest-goal linkages, translation of goals into actions, performance skills, negotiation of transition supports and barriers) suggests targets for developmental and remedial interventions that promote students' career development across the school years and after work entry.

Objective: Occupational skin changes in hairdressers are very common. Morbidity, however, has not yet been quantified precisely. Methods: A cohort of 2352 hairdressing apprentices (of the 2570 invited to participate, i.e., 91.5% response) was prospectively followed for the duration of their vocational training (3 years) by three examinations. Three waves (years) were recruited in 1992, 1993, and 1994 from 15 vocational training schools in northwestern Germany. Results: The point prevalence of (mostly slight) irritant skill changes of the hands increased from 35.4% in the initial examination to 47.5% in the intermediate examination and to 55.1% in the final examination. Given a more conservative definition of a case of 'hand dermatitis,' these estimates were 12.9%, 23.5%, and 23.9%, respectively. Altogether, 34.3 and 15.2 cases of 'skin changes (any degree)' and 'hand dermatitis,' respectively, in 100 person-years were observed during the study period. The incidence rate, i.e., the number of newly diseased study participants in relation to the person-time at risk contributed, decreased in the course of the study. The proportion of dropouts until final follow-up was 51.8%. Conclusion: The present results appear to lie in a range with those found in other, much smaller cohort studies. However, comparison of the results is hampered either by the lack of a clear definition or by a different definition of 'person-time at risk' or 'a case of hand dermatitis.' As compared with an external control group of office apprentices, the incidence was several times higher in hairdressing apprentices, which points to the high risk for skin damage in this occupation.