This book addresses what is, perhaps, the single most important issue for vocational education; its relatively low standing in an era of high aspiration. The work explores the nature, extent and consequences for an educational sector that whilst having an increasingly important role in contemporary societies is seen to be of low standing across…

Concise, clear and comprehensive snapshots of vocational education and training systems in EU, Iceland and Norway: this is what the Cedefop Spotlight on VET series offers. Building on individual country Spotlights, this publication provides an overview of VET systems with their distinctive qualities, such as main accession and progression routes…

The aim of this paper is to analyse the school-to-work transition of young people in France, focusing specifically on those who are not in employment, education or training (so-called NEETs), in order to understand their risk of becoming and remaining NEET. Using longitudinal data from a representative national cohort of French young people…

The Commission on Education and Employment Opportunities for Young People (Youth Commission) aims to find ways to improve education and employment opportunities for England's 16-24-year olds. The Commission's first report (see ED604277) identified five key challenges: (1) Better supporting 700,000 young people not in education, employment or…

In France's highly defined educational hierarchy, apprenticeship ranks low and is rejected by the academically successful. In England, educational pathways are less clearly ranked, and apprenticeships are desirable. Reflecting these differences, English craft apprentices scored higher on mathematics tests and showed less occupational variability…

This report presents papers on the vocational qualifications systems in Sweden, France, the Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany, and England and Wales. An introduction (Russ Russell) looks at common themes. The paper on Sweden (Gun Cardell) addresses vocational education opportunities, curriculum and standards, costs, youth and…

This comparative study on craft apprenticeship in Europe is divided into four parts. An introductory section analyzes developments and trends in apprenticeship training in Europe. The second section is a view of vocational training derived from interviews with European commission officials. Some common issues in apprenticeship training in Denmark,…

This article focuses on the Rhone-Alpes region's policy for the development of alternating training based on cooperation between the occupational branches and the national educational system. It discusses the following: France's 1987 law on apprenticeship that provided an opportunity for its emergence; cooperative apprenticeship as the culmination…

A study was made of the state of apprenticeship in France, using data gathered through telephone interviews with apprentices. Of a targeted group of 6,000 young apprentices, 70% participated in the survey. The study found that, until recently, apprenticeships had generally been used in France to train students in manual trades. During the past 10…

"Alternative" or cooperative education is a way of organizing instruction that combines education in an academic institution with training in a professional setting. The approach has attracted a renewed interest in Europe in the past few years because of its potential for motivating students, reducing student attrition, and raising the…

This book examines the effectiveness and distributive ramifications of the institutions of German skill provision as they functioned at home in the 1990s and as they served as a template for reform in other industrialized countries. The volume relies on multiple sources of data, including in-firm case studies, larger-scale surveys of companies,…

Three centuries ago only religious schools and apprenticeship controlled by the guilds existed to provide training. Regular academic schools originated in religions that needed a well-educated clergy, and these schools offered the model for the universal basic and secondary schools that exist today in nearly all countries. The European guilds gave…

Vocational teachers and trainers in France belong to four groups: teaching personnel employed by the Ministry of Education, teaching personnel in private technical education, teaching personnel in educational establishments accountable to other ministers, and trainers in other bodies (apprenticeship training centers and company training centers).…

This volume presents the results of a seminar on apprenticeship in Europe entitled "Apprenticeship, Alternance and Dual Systems: Dead-Ends or Highways to the Future" (Marseilles, France, April 1994). It deals with ways in which alternating learning at school and work can provide young people with relevant work skills and facilitate their…

A meeting was held to discuss the findings of case studies examining the role of companies in generating qualifications and the training impact of work organization in Germany, Denmark, Spain, and France. New forms of work organization (NFOT) were identified and examined from the standpoint of sources of organizational change, the main areas of…