While TVET literature focuses on the potential role of the sector in socio-economic development, seldom is attention given to how socio-economic conditions and policies affect the development of the sector. This paper endeavours to contribute to filling this gap. It argues that examining the factors that influence access, equity and outcomes of…

The integration of learning across different learning sites is an important and challenging task for each vocational education and training system. Although various integrative teaching and learning models have been developed and many reforms have been undertaken, their implementation is complicated by several factors. In particular, individual…

Foundation programs give students the key skills and knowledge needed for entry into a trade. A traditional apprenticeship requires four or five levels of training. Progressive apprenticeship programs make it possible for an apprentice to obtain a certificate of qualification after each "progression." Foundation programs can link to…

Occupations differ in their prestige, but little research has examined how workers manage working in a low-prestige occupation. This case study with retail-clerk apprentices in Switzerland uncovers the identity strategies the apprentices employ to help them normalise the situation they find themselves in: they are learning an occupation that is…

In this article, it will be argued that in a postmodern society, there is a growing interest in apprenticeship. In a postmodern society, one of the issues dominating work life today is the need to learn local and pragmatic kinds of knowledge due to specialized, rapidly changing, and flexible forms of production. The resurrected interest in…

Compared with England, where new implementations and programmes in the education system are often introduced at a striking pace, the German education system seems to be rather stable in its features and less dynamic in terms of reform and change. Hence, a phenomenon called "reform bottleneck" ("Reformstau") has often been…

At more than $80,000, Switzerland's per capita income is the 3rd highest in Europe and the 4th highest in the world. Switzerland is home to one of the world's most innovative economies and its unemployment rate rests comfortably below 4 percent. All of this in a nation that produces comparatively few university graduates. In an era marked by…

Austria, Germany and Switzerland are renowned for their extensive systems of collective vocational skill formation, which, however, have developed largely in separation from higher education. This divide has become increasingly contested as a result of a variety of socioeconomic factors that have led to an increasing demand for higher level…

This article explores aspects of the experience of higher education students in a Scottish college within the context of widespread contemporary concern about youth unemployment. Analysis of published data reveals a marked shift in the demographic profile of higher education students in colleges in favour of young people. An unseen consequence of…

This paper provides an overview of VET (vocational education and training) in Ireland. In Ireland, the main providers of VET are the national Training and Employment Authority (FAS--a non-commercial semi-State body, part of the public sector) and vocational education committees (VECs--public sector bodies at county level responsible for vocational…

This book addresses growing reservations about the relevance of educational systems to the economic and social needs of individuals by examining different aspects of transitions from school to work or further studies within formal and informal settings in Asia. Highlighting important issues such as selectiveness and inclusiveness, integration of…

Since 1998, the Iowa Department of Education's Division of Community Colleges and Workforce Preparation (division) has compiled and published "The Annual Condition of Iowa's Community Colleges," commonly known as the "Condition Report." The intent of this report is to provide clear, objective data about Iowa's community…

Raising of Participation Age (RPA) legislation mandates English youth to participate in post-16 education, employment or training. However, how does this particular college accommodate youth that were so-called disaffected learners and previously not in education, employment and training (NEET)? The aim was to investigate the educational…

The report presents the data from the 2016 Census on the education of Canadians. In 2016, 22.4% of the Canadian population aged 25 to 64 had a college diploma as the highest educational qualification, compared with an estimated 8% among Organization for Economic Cooperation Development countries overall. In 2016, 40.7% of young women…

Workplace relations like any social relation first and foremost have a moral dimension. Thus, if vocational education sees one of its major goals in helping apprentices to deal with moral issues, one of the core objectives in vocational education is the support of the apprentice's development of moral judgement competence. Since Lawrence Kohlberg…