Journal of Vocational Education & Training 

About: Journal of Vocational Education & Training is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Vocational education & Higher education. It has an ISSN identifier of 2288-2014. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 1924 publications have been published receiving 20101 citations.

Learning as Becoming in Vocational Education and Training: Class, Gender and the Role of Vocational Habitus.

Abstract: Official accounts of learning in vocational education and training emphasise the acquisition of technical skills and knowledge to foster behavioural competence in the workplace. However, such accounts fail to acknowledge the relationship between learning and identity. Drawing on detailed case studies of three vocational courses – in childcare, healthcare and engineering – in English further education colleges, within the project Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education, it is argued that learning is a process of becoming. Learning cultures and the vocational cultures in which they are steeped transform those who enter them. The authors develop the concept of ‘vocational habitus’ to explain a central aspect of students' experience, as they have to orient to a particular set of dispositions – both idealised and realised. Predispositions related to gender, family background and specific locations within the working class are necessary, but not sufficient for effective learning. Vocational habitus reinforces and develops these in line with demands of the workplace, although it may reproduce social inequalities at the same time. Vocational habitus involves developing not only a ‘sense’ of how to be, but also ‘sensibility’: requisite feelings and morals, and the capacity for emotional labour.

The Concept of Competence in the Development of Vocational Education and Training in Selected EU Member States: A Critical Analysis.

Abstract: This contribution follows the descriptive review of Weigel, Mulder and Collins regarding the use of the competence concept in the development of vocational education and training in England, France, Germany and the Netherlands. The purpose of this contribution is to review the critical analyses brought forward by various authors in this field. This analysis also remarks on the most important theories and critiques on the use of the competence concept in the above‐mentioned states, The systems of vocational education within the four states covered in this study are: the National Vocational Qualifications in England, the approach to learning areas in Germany, the ETED and the bilan de competences in France, and the implementation of competence‐based vocational education in the Netherlands, and these are the respective focal points for the critical assessments of the competence concept presented here. These critiques encompass such aspects as the lack of a coherent definition of the concept of competence, th...

Competence-based VET in the Netherlands: background and pitfalls

Abstract: In the Dutch Vocational Education and Training (VET) system, competence-based education is the leading paradigm for innovation, both at the system level and at the level of learning environments. This article provides an historical analysis of the development of competence-based education in various countries and explores the concept of competence and its popularity. Possible pitfalls with respect to the concept of competence, standardisation, school and workplace learning, determining learning activities, assessment of competencies, changing teacher roles/identity and competence-based management will be discussed. Taking these pitfalls into account, roads for future development will be sketched. A learning policy connecting governance, practice and research is believed to be the most fruitful way to develop flexible VET systems that are suited to the emerging knowledge-based economy.

Transforming Higher Education

Abstract: The University System of Ohio (USO) is one of the largest comprehensive public systems of higher education in the nation, serving almost 600,000 students and offering a full range of options from a GED to a Ph.D. The system includes 14 universities (with 24 regional campuses), 23 community colleges, and over 120 adult workforce education and training centers across the state. Because of a groundbreaking collaborative approach between Governor Kasich and Ohio’s 37 public college and university presidents, the Executive Budget for fiscal years 2014-2015 contains bold policy reforms to the way in which higher education funding is allocated to our public institutions of higher education. Collectively, these reforms position Ohio as a national leader in performance-based funding for higher education. This Special Analysis provides a brief discussion of the benefits associated with higher education, an overview of Ohio’s current higher education funding model, and a detailed review of the extensive policy reforms that are recommended to the funding model as a result of Governor Kasich’s innovative approach to higher education collaboration.

Employers' Demands for Personal Transferable Skills in Graduates: A Content Analysis of 1000 Job Advertisements and an Associated Empirical Study.

Abstract: One thousand job advertisements in four occupational categories (marketing, general management, finance, human resource management) appearing in a number of graduate recruitment databases over a two-year period were examined in an attempt to obtain an objective assessment of the transferable personal skills demanded of graduate job applicants. It emerged that advertisements within each category were significantly more likely to ask for certain skills potentially relevant to jobs within that category than for others. Advertisements for managerial and highly paid jobs also tended to request particular sets of skills. The personnel managers or other executives concerned with graduate recruitment in 500 of the companies that had placed the advertisements were sent a questionnaire concerning their reasons for stipulating the personal skills mentioned in their firms' advertisements for graduate employees. Logical motives for including interpersonal skills requirements in job advertisements were cited b...