This book addresses what is, perhaps, the single most important issue for vocational education; its relatively low standing in an era of high aspiration. The work explores the nature, extent and consequences for an educational sector that whilst having an increasingly important role in contemporary societies is seen to be of low standing across…

Educational success is often measured using short-term metrics such as exam results and league tables. While these offer snapshots in time, they also provide an incomplete and misleading picture. Success is about more than short-term achievements -- it's also about individuals' long-term goals, career success, personal fulfilment and contribution…

This paper investigates effective strategies for enhancing completion rates of apprentices and their retention after completing their training. The study was cross sectional and qualitative, involving semi-structured interviews with managers and four focus groups involving current and completed apprentices from within the engineering sector. The…

Work-based learning is a key component of career and technical education programs. A variety of certificated and non-certificated work-based learning programs exist for high schools to implement. Wisconsin's Youth Apprenticeship program is a widely used model of work-based learning in high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs…

Historically, the purpose of apprenticeships has been to provide structured high-value training, resulting in transferable skills and knowledge for young people seeking to enter work-based learning. Apprenticeship training was enabled by linking industry with local technical colleges and professional engineering institutions. The apprenticeship…

The Montana Early Childhood Apprenticeship Program (MECAP) aims to support and increase retention of early childhood education (ECE) providers through on-the-job training, mentorship, and college coursework. Upon completing the program, apprentices are awarded the Child Care Development Specialist Certificate from Montana's Department of Labor and…

The Voices of Youth Count initiative's systematic evidence review is the most comprehensive synthesis of evaluation evidence on programs and practices related to youth homelessness to date. This document is one in a series of seven topical evidence summaries derived from the longer evidence review brief. Herein, evaluations of economic and…

The 2014 BC Student Outcomes surveys, which included the Baccalaureate Graduates Survey (BGS), the Diploma, Associate Degree, and Certificate Student Outcomes (DACSO) Survey, and the Apprenticeship Student Outcomes (APPSO) Survey, asked respondents to confirm their postal code. In all, over 26,000 former students responded to the three surveys,…

The COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study is a new national cohort study generating high-quality evidence about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected socio-economic inequalities in life chances, both in terms of short- and long-term effects on education, wellbeing, and career outcomes. A representative sample of young people in…

We report a comparative qualitative study conducted in Lebanon and China on mentoring approaches, their compatibility with expectations, and their facilitation of learning opportunities. Data sources included interviews, journals, and essays from 20 student teachers (STs), and interviews from 10 cooperating teachers (CTs). Findings indicate a…

The research apprenticeship is a situated form of learning that can be effective in connecting learners to science. It is commonly assumed that this pathway is characterised by power transitions from those positioned as experts to those positioned as novices, yet power and positionality during a research apprenticeship have rarely been explicitly…

Apprenticeships are paid jobs which incorporate on- and off-the-job training. There is a strong economic case for investing in these as a key training route to help young people, in particular, enter the labour market, and to support the wider economic recovery from the pandemic. Despite the significant benefits which apprenticeships offer young…

This report shares data on college resources in Ontario as they relate to: (1) College system revenues and expenses; (2) Trends in college funding; (3) Human resources trends; and (4) Student financial aid. Among the highlights are: (1) In 2019-20, college system revenues totaled $5.5 billion. Grant revenue from all sources accounted for only 34…

Despite the ongoing debate about how much academic versus vocational upper-secondary education is favorable for a country and large differences across countries of those two types of education exist, the interplay of vocational and academic education on upper-secondary level and its consequences for the entire education system remain…

This article shares our experience using a job-embedded active learning approach to support candidates' growth as systems-focused equity leaders in the University of Washington's Leadership for Learning program. We describe how socio-cultural learning theory helped us shift from field-based application projects to job-embedded learning. Our…