The collaborative project UseMyAbility (UMA) sought to reduce discrimination and enhance disabled graduates' employability through equipping them with the skills to match employability skills and attributes. An outcome from the project, completed in 2011, was a web-based tool which gave students advice on how to improve their employability.…

The dramatic rise in the number of university students holding BTECs [Business and Technology Education Councils] raises important questions about the purpose of the qualification and whether it should be treated by policymakers as part of an academic or vocational pathway. Scott Kelly discusses these issues and makes a number of recommendations…

Narrative skills are fundamental and indispensable in business in the twenty-first century. The ability to devise, craft, and deliver a successful narrative is not only a pre-requisite for any Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or senior executive, but is also increasingly becoming necessary for employees in any organisation. This ground-breaking…

This essay is an empirical account of English language use, across three continents, in 40 Tuning and analogous discipline-based statements of desired demonstrated competences and learning outcomes in higher education. It is primarily concerned with lexical and semantic matters, takes the perspective of the student as the primary reader and…

This study investigated outcomes of the provision, by one Australian and two U.K. universities, of bridging programs that allow registered Malaysian nurses to upgrade their diploma qualifications to degree level. The study was informed by current literature on Transnational Higher Education (TNHE) programs. Not sufficiently explored in the…

The focus of this paper is on the development of early-years pedagogy for a beginning teacher during her initial training and newly qualified teacher year. A series of interviews was conducted with the beginning teacher and the class teacher and mentor she worked alongside. The findings suggested that a shared pedagogy of early-years practice…

A survey was carried out to determine whether the way Design is taught at secondary and university level in the UK, adequately prepares pupils who choose to pursue a career in design and then to determine ways that it could be improved. A survey was completed with 13 participants, studying design at university, to discover from their perspective…

In many professions there are qualifications to gain and professional standards to achieve. Lawyers pass the bar and doctors pass their boards. In academic life the equivalent is a doctorate, closely followed by a profile of peer-reviewed publication. To hold a doctoral degree is the common requirement to become "academic" but does it…

Learning and Work Institute (L&W) was commissioned by the Department for Education to identify and illustrate effective practice in the delivery of English, maths and digital skills across a range of traineeship and/or apprenticeship providers, and to identify any practices that are particularly effective for learners with learning…

European qualifications framework (EQF) levels reveal what a learner knows, understands, and can do at the end of a learning experience. Thanks to the comprehensive nature of the EQF, these learning outcomes can also provide policy-makers with a fine mesh of data about each particular level and every kind of qualification. Nowhere is this mesh…

Despite the fact that students are often articulate about qualifications policy matters, their perspectives are rarely listened to. This is because governments shape qualifications policy according to pre-set beliefs and are unwilling to countenance dissonant or outsider views. Using the Diploma qualification and inclusion of vocational…

This paper considers how far Anglo Saxon conceptions of vocational education and training have influenced European Union vocational education and training policy, especially given the disparate approaches to vocational education and training across Europe. Two dominant approaches can be identified: the dual system (exemplified by Germany); and…

This article reports the results of research concerned with students' statistical anxiety and confidence to both complete and learn to complete statistical tasks. Data were collected at the beginning and end of a quantitative method statistics module. Students recognised the value of numeracy skills but felt they were not necessarily relevant for…

Migration is an important part of UK society and the evidence clearly demonstrates that migration has contributed socially and economically over many centuries to the Britain we know today. However, much of the discourse about migration focuses on the negative concerns about the level and impact of migration at the expense of reasoned debate about…

Despite the United Kingdom government increasing efforts to tackle unemployment, young people face a number of barriers to be employed. As a leading awarding body, City & Guilds launched the TechBac in 2014 to address some of these barriers and provide learners with a balanced programme of vocational study. This article is based on the initial…