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Vocational education aims at preparing students for their future as professionals; thus, students are often required to undergo a form of on-the-job learning. Assessment of professional performance during on-the-job learning is not based on single observations, but on prolonged participation at the workplace culminating in judgement by a workplace educator. However, little is known about how educators reach a judgement. This paper, therefore, aims at exploring how educators inform their judgements about students' professional performance. We consider the workplace to be a participatory learning environment, which entails that judgement about professional performance should be made in relation to the community students participated in and that the educator from that community has a central role. Our study takes an explorative approach based on interviews and uses template analysis to generate insight. Findings revealed that educators use multiple strategies to gather and process information about students to inform their judgement. Findings also showed that assessment starts at the first meeting, when the educator forms a first impression of the student and judges whether or not the student is suitable for the job. Educators at the workplace also showed that they are aware of the context in which they form their judgement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education institutions are increasingly expected to demonstrate the relevance of the education provided and establish tighter links with the labour market. The introduction of learning outcomes represents one such development. The article examines the extent to which various intermediary organisations are involved in decisions about learning outcomes and the consequences of this regarding the role of learning outcomes and their potential in linking higher education to the world of work. Intermediary organisations are operationalised as professional associations and trade unions. The empirical material includes data from interviews of 14 intermediary organisations with different ties to higher education. The findings show that organisations have distinctly different approaches to their involvement in learning-outcome development as well as different views on the potentials of learning outcomes as a legitimate instrument to increase the relevance of higher education. Instead of creating new links between higher education and the world of work, the processes of introducing learning outcomes reinforce existing collaboration patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages with an extensive body of research by David Raffe to explore what it means to say that a qualifications framework ‘works’, in light of the limited evidence to support the claims made about this popular policy phenomenon. The framework regarded as the most successful, the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework, is of limited value in thinking about frameworks in general, as it is deeply embedded in institutions and a series of educational reforms in that country. Typologies of qualifications frameworks provide insights in theorizing and researching qualifications frameworks. An analysis of this literature suggests that attempts to theorize frameworks were useful for an initial range of studies, but have reached the limit of their usefulness. They run the risk of being concept-heavy, when there is almost no empirical data for researchers to analyse. The paper suggests, drawing again on Raffe’s work, that qualifications frameworks could be of interest in studying the changing relationships between knowledge, qualifications, and work in different countries, but only if attention is paid to context and the ways in which the apparent problems of the qualifications derive not from the qualifications themselves but are primarily the products of their context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researching how people are educated for practice has often been seen as problematic. We recommend qualitative approaches that draw on hermeneutic phenomenology and narrative inquiry. It is our intention to outline approaches that we believe can be used in an emerging research agenda. We begin by examining assumptions underlying much workplace research and recent trends, such as social constructionism. There has been a gradual recognition of the importance of the social aspects of practice with the rise in popularity of such ideas as communities of practice, and the recognition of the significance of the work of scholars such as Vygotsky. However, the individual's interaction with the practice environment and their interpretation of their own experience has been somewhat neglected. We argue that there is an important dialogical relationship between the individual and the practice environment, affected by personal histories, workplace cultures and education. We need more research that deeply engages with the individual's perspective on practice. We argue that combining hermeneutic phenomenology and narrative inquiry can allow research to engage with the individual's subjective experience and explore the relationships between individuals and their communities of practice. We also draw on the ideas of the Russian scholar, Mikhail Bakhtin, to further develop the importance of studying the dynamic dialogical relationships that individuals establish with themselves and their practice environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'gap year' is defined as a time between the end of school and the beginning of further studies in which young people engage in a variety of activities, including paid or voluntary work. 'Gapping' is a significant trend globally for young people deferring formal study after completing school, before commencing further or higher education. A sizeable industry has grown up around the gap-year concept with many volunteer placement agencies, websites, guide books and 'time-off consultants' available to help young people plan their gap year, often at significant cost. It is claimed that a gap-year experience will help participants acquire 'soft skills' needed in the modern world of work, develop social values allowing them to better adapt to university life and ultimately become more attractive to employers. Reference to the literature and data from surveys of Australian school and university students addresses the gap-year phenomenon and how can it be defined and theorised. The paper explores reasons why school leavers delay transition into further education and what they do instead, queries whether gapping provides significant development of 'soft skills', and concludes that the gap-year trend has implications for recognising work experience and informal learning in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws upon results from an ESRC-funded research project exploring young graduates' attitudes to, and experiences of, further education or learning postgraduation. Respondents' narratives indicated a strong emphasis upon job-based learning, or training, over and above an oft-stated desire to do further study 'for its own sake'. Whilst the majority of graduates expressed contentment with their work-leisure-education balance, a significant number also marked up a desire for 'leisure-learning' which was not 'yet' possible due to the demands of work and work-based training. This prompts questions about how we, and the graduates, conceptualise the 'use' of having a degree in an era of higher education massification, exploring issues of 'generic' skills and personal growth. It also raises questions about the role and function of wider 'lifelong learning' practices for those in their twenties, as well as the status of the work-leisure-education balance of young professionals, and whether this encourages or discourages efforts to develop a 'learning society'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the impact of ethnic background on employment and earnings among people with a vocational education in Norway. I differentiate between three different groups: majority, first-generation non-Westerners and second-generation non-Westerners. Panel data from several public register databases of the entire population of graduates from Norwegian vocational schools from 1997 to 2001 (N = 54,453) are used. The aim of this article is to uncover ethnic inequality in the labour market among vocational graduates and try to understand these differences. By using multi-level linear and logistic regression analysis methods it is shown that the majority have significantly higher earnings than the first- and second-generation non-western ethnic minorities; however, the earning gap is closing with time since graduation. The analyses also show that the ethnic differences in earnings are minor when we compare individuals who are fully employed. Results for employment show that the first-generation non-western minorities have a lower probability for full employment as compared to the majority, but the second-generation minorities experience only a minor disadvantage. Finally, I found that the disparity in annual earnings between the first-generation non-western minorities and the majority increases with increasing non-western ethnic concentration and unemployment rate in local labour markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the factors associated with the decision by school students in Australia to work part-time. I find substantial variation in the probability of working across the eight Australian states and territories, as well as by remoteness. Those who live in households with low income are less likely to work. A person's ancestry is also associated with variation in the probability of working, as is the type of school they attend. This paper also looks at unemployment amongst school students. In addition to Indigenous Australians, one group of students found to be substantially more likely to be unemployed are those who live in a household where no one else is employed. Other authors have found that those who spend long hours at work have been found to achieve poorly across a number of outcomes. The biggest differences in the probability of working long hours are associated with the industry in which the student works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to discuss the theoretical and practical problems in effecting transfer between school and work, and to present a new conceptualisation of transfer called developmental transfer that shifts the emphasis from the individual transfer of knowledge to the collaborative efforts of organisations to create new knowledge and practices. We give an overview and evaluate the current notions of transfer and present the need and characteristics of the developmental transfer. In a case study, we also describe the concrete tools for promoting the developmental transfer in professional higher education. A new way of enhancing collaboration between the school and the workplace is based on successful boundary crossing and the formation of a shared object between activity systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides an analysis of Core Skill policy and practice in the UK. The author presents a conceptual basis for re-thinking generic Core Skills within educational approaches in teaching and learning. The discussion looks at whether universal notions of generic skills are appropriate when considering post-compulsory pedagogic approaches to the design of the curriculum. The arguments are framed within wider cross-disciplinary debates in linguistics, the psychology of work and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article about educational gap in higher education is presented.