This occasional paper provides an overview of the development of Australia's national training system and is a key knowledge document of a wider research project "Consistency with flexibility in the Australian national training system." This research project investigates the various approaches undertaken by each of the jurisdictions to…

This research overview summarizes the work undertaken by Kaye Bowman and Suzy McKenna in exploring jurisdictional approaches to the implementation of student entitlements to vocational skills training, a key reform initiative in the National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform (NPASR) of 2012-16. The overview is a condensed summary of three…

While acknowledging that a system of vocational qualifications might be perceived as having any number of possible purposes, this paper identifies three primary functions that any vocational qualification must fulfil by dint of being a vocational qualification. It is argued that current arrangements are unable to fulfil these essential functions…

This article examines the concept of misrecognition as advanced by Pierre Bourdieu in the development and implementation of educational leadership standards in the USA and in England. The line of argument advanced is that leadership standards were promulgated as an agenda to control and dominate a contested field in both countries by certain…

Level descriptors are essential elements of national qualifications frameworks being established across Europe. They define what is meant by learning outcomes, describing what an individual is expected to know, be able to do and understand, having acquired a qualification at a particular level. This Cedefop working paper shows that most of the 36…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to review the use of competence frameworks in the UK healthcare sector and to explore characteristics of the sector that may influence the success of projects to develop new frameworks. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on project reports and evaluations of practice in a range of recent projects…

In 1993-1996, the Grocers Research and Educational Foundation of the National Grocers Association developed entry-level skill standards for the food marketing industry. A coalition formed early in the project directed the skill standard development process and solicited input from major organizations involved in the industry. The validity of the…

The UK's National Learning Targets for Education and Training, embracing 11- to 21-year-olds, adults, and employers, promote a credentialist approach to economic and social development. This article shows how the steel industry measures up. Using qualifications-based targets as a proxy for adult workforce capability is misguided. (Contains 40…

The Electronics Industries Foundation was awarded a project to develop national entry-level standards and a certification system. Ten specialties were included: automotive electronics, avionics, biomedical electronics, business machines, consumer products electronics, general electronics, industrial electronics, instrumentation, microcomputer, and…

This research synthesis reviews how employers, educators, and professional and labor organizations have adapted general work readiness, industry core, occupational cluster, and specific occupational skills to design and implement a skill standard system. Its primary goal is to describe and analyze a continuum of alternatives for conceptualizing…

The Insuring Information Technology Competence project explored ways to improve skills and retrain individuals to exploit information technology (IT) for more effective delivery of financial services. Seven organizations working in the financial services sector in Britain participated. The project was dependent on the organizations' ability to…

The issue of developing a new framework of industry programs for vocational education in the United States was examined in a study of the current status of programmatic structures nationally and among the 50 states. The following are among the topics that were explored: (1) the rationale for a new programmatic framework in the context of changing…

A study examined the effectiveness of existing nursing education programs to prepare individuals in the United Kingdom for employment as community specialist practitioners in the context of public health. The study was designed in three strands as follows: (1) a questionnaire-based source of 52 directors and leaders from community specialist…

Adult continuing education (ACE) can be a major force in human capital development and an integral part of lifelong learning. Although recognition of the importance of ACE in developed countries is increasing, the impact of ACE is not well understood in some middle-income countries (MICs), there is a lack of leadership, and the sector is somewhat…