Case studies provide helpful teaching tools to capture the complexity of administrative problems from an action-oriented perspective. With increasingly complex policy problems at hand, more interdisciplinary, interactive, and discursive approaches to teaching are also in demand. However, the case method offers a broad variety of options for…

Qualifications frameworks are tools for describing qualifications of an education or training system by classifying them into levels. Each level provides a clear description of what the holder of a qualification knows, understands and is able to do. They are important tools for making qualifications transparent and comprehensible, within and…

Qualifications frameworks are tools for describing qualifications of an education or training system by classifying them into levels. Each level provides a clear description of what the holder of a qualification knows, understands and is able to do. They are important tools for making qualifications transparent and comprehensible, within and…

This article is a case study of an attempt by a team of Vocational Education and Training (VET) teachers, researchers and users of social services to develop a more effective, knowledge rich, vocational stream qualification in the Health Care and Social Assistance industry. Health Care and Social Assistance is one of the fastest growing industries…

Understanding the role of higher education in a system of high participation is becoming more important to providers and policymakers internationally. In this system, whereby increasingly higher education is taking place in vocational institutions, there has been renewed focus on the distinct nature of this provision, and the benefits it may hold…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find a framework for the assessment of the learning outcomes of entrepreneurship education as a cross-curricular subject. The problem is twofold: the first difficulty is the relationship to the general issues regarding competence and its assessment; the second difficulty is the assessment of competencies in…

Accountability pressures are substantial and growing in higher education. Regional accreditors have assimilated the language and purpose of assessment as part of the reviewing cycle for re-accreditation with the intention of making institutions more responsive in demonstrating improvement of student learning outcomes. Despite this, educational…

"Public-Private Partnerships for Skills Development" discusses the concept of public-private partnership (PPP) and its application in the domain of skills development. Volume I proposes a three-dimension typology of PPPs for skills development, and identifies common elements and governance characteristics of these PPPs. Volume II…

Self-governance and responsibilisation are integral to Basic Key Skills Builder (BKSB) assessments and Functional Skills qualifications. However, very little is known of its neoliberalist effects and the governance practices of tutors teaching disengaged youth taking Functional Skills as part of the overall employability certificate. Adopting a…

Since 2009, German universities were opened by law to freshmen who do not possess the traditional graduation certificate required for entry into University, but who are rather vocationally qualified. In this article, we track the grades of these so-called non-traditional students and compare them to those of traditional students using a…

This paper proposes the utilisation of a method for matching qualifications' graduate profile outcomes to job roles and work responsibilities as apprenticeship progresses. In so doing, attainment of qualifications is made possible through the workplace validation of graduate profiles. Conferred occupational identity by other workers or managers…

In a highly competitive global landscape, occupations are transformed, new jobs are created and the skills needed for the labour market are constantly changing. European countries are looking at redefining VET [vocational education and training] to respond promptly to such challenges and take advantage of the opportunities ahead. They are…

The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) for lifelong learning has been characterized as a policy instrument with a number of contested ideas, raising questions about the process through which such instruments are developed at European level. The introduction of the EQF is in this article examined through variations of neo-institutional theory:…

The relationship between research and policymaking has been discussed repeatedly. However, the debate tends to be in general, abstract terms or from a macroeconomic perspective with any examples described in a fairly cursory way. Despite the inherent complexity of the research-policy interface, analyses tend to homogenise "research" and…

The goal of this paper was to explore the directions for a Japanese Qualifications Framework (JQF) through the collation of Japanese Government expert viewpoints. This study used a qualitative case study design involving interviews with 15 Japanese government officials. It was found that Japan continues to have problems with academic degrees and…