This article suggests ways in which teacher supervisors and trainers on short courses can reposition their role by making the feedback conference more collaborative and trainee-led. The authors argue that by taking a more dialogic approach and exploring critical incidents, trainee teachers can develop reflective skills and take more ownership of…

Short, preparatory 'foundation year' courses have exploded in popularity in recent years, but they have drawn criticism from policymakers. Like Access diplomas, they serve to support people from all backgrounds to enter higher education. This HEPI Report asks whether foundation years are effective tools for widening access -- or whether, when it…

The development and enhancement of creative thinking capacities is essential to marketing students' success. But despite marketing students' need to enhance and evidence their creative capacity skill set for the careers of the future, there exist few available models for marketing educators to introduce creative thinking skill development. This…

This report examines whether a distinction can be made in Australian VET between initial vocational education and training (IVET) and continuing vocational education and training (CVET), as applies in a number of other countries. Assisting students to more effectively identify and undertake courses that will optimise their outcomes from VET is the…

The American dream promised that if you worked hard, you could move up, with well-paying working-class jobs providing a gateway to an ever-growing middle class. Today, however, we have increasing inequality, not economic convergence. Technological advances are putting quality jobs out of reach for workers who lack the proper skills and training.…

With the onset of new public management, there is a shift in the methods of financing of higher education institutions across the countries of the world, particularly emerging market economies, from public financing to private financing of higher education. Many countries adopted this shift very quickly while others have moved towards a gradual…

In recent years, there has been substantial interest in micro-credentials in post-secondary education. In November 2019, Australian skills ministers agreed to fast-track work exploring micro-credentials in the national vocational education and training (VET) system, with the aim of ensuring that the system responds more effectively to the needs of…

The OECD Career Readiness project makes use of quantitative evidence to investigate how teenage career-related activities and attitudes are associated with better adult employment outcomes. Review of multiple national longitudinal datasets confirms 11 indicators of better outcomes linked to the ways in which teenagers explore, experience and think…

Business and professional communicators increasingly rely on visual thinking and design strategies to create effective messages. The workplace need for such thinking, however, is not readily accommodated in current pedagogy. A long-running study abroad short course for American students taught in London provides a model for meeting this need.…