Vocational education and training - VET

Lagging skill demand increases risks of skill mismatch.

The report analyses the experiences of the 81 learners who were nominated for the 2011 Adult Apprentice of the Year Award. The experiences of these adults are an unusual source of information which might assist further policy thinking on adult apprenticeships. This report focuses on how the nominees learnt about apprenticeships, how they got onto their apprenticeship, and how they were supported once on the apprenticeship. It also reflects their views on how adult apprenticeships might be improved.

This paper examines how the knowledge culture of computer engineering – that is, the ways in which knowledge is produced, distributed, accumulated and collectively approached within this profession – serve to construct work-based learning in specific ways. The paper reveals how these features involve engineers in multiple and coexisting dynamics of objectual practice that provide and constitute opportunities for learning.

In international comparative terms, German companies remain behind expectations when it comes to the continuing training of their employees. In light of the clearly impending shortage of skilled workers and rising requirements with regard to activities and skills, there ought, however, to be an increasing demand on the part of firms for company-based continuing training to act as an important instrument for the securing of economic efficiency and to cover training needs. The present paper serves as the basis for highlighting both this correlation and further possible factors exerting an influence on the willingness of companies to provide continuing training.

Fewer Maritimers have been enrolling in the region’s universities in recent years, largely the result of flattening demand after the peak in 2004. The paper notes that, to date, the declining demand among Maritimers has not meant declining enrolments in Maritime universities. Enrolments have remained fairly stable in recent years through the recruitment of students from outside the region. 

We utilize the 2006 Census to compare the returns from apprenticeships with those from other educational pathways (high school graduation, non-apprenticeship trades and community college). An apprenticeship premium prevails for males but a deficit is evident for females, with this pattern prevailing across the quantiles of the pay distribution, albeit with the premium being larger for males at the lower quantiles. Reasons for these patterns are discussed as are the relative importance of differences in the endowments of wage determining characteristics and differences in pay for the same wage determining characteristics.

The objectives of this study were to:

- Collect and synthesise existing evidence about the role of qualifications frameworks in supporting mobility of workers and learners;

- Identify the existing obstacles in qualification recognition and discuss the potential and limitations of qualifications frameworks in this context;

- Outline the possibilities of and opportunities for linkages between the European Qualifications Framework and the Australian Qualifications Framework.

Report on the Bologna Expert Conference, Dublin Castle, Ireland, 15 April 2010.

The conference aimed to contribute to building mutual trust and understanding in order to better achieve the shared goals of supporting individuals’ lifelong learning and mobility.

Learning begins at birth or even at the pre-natal stage and continues throughout an individual’s life, through formal, non-formal and informal methods.

Recognising this, a number of countries in Asia and the Pacific have established Non-Formal Education (NFE) systems that are linked to formal education through the use of Equivalency Programmes (EPs). Learners are often given the flexibility to move between formal and non-formal channels of education at primary level, secondary level, and beyond.

A guide for state leaders, policymakers and/or district and school leaders with assessment tactics and examples to assist in statewide 21st century skills initiatives.

The roadmap is a practical resource for anyone involved in hiring internationally trained workers, including business owners, human resources professionals, recruiters and managers.

This paper analyzes how the costs of hiring skilled workers from the external labor market affect a firm's supply of training. Using administrative survey data with detailed information on hiring and training costs for Swiss firms, we find evidence for substantial and increasing marginal hiring costs. However, firms can invest in internal training of unskilled workers and thereby avoid costs for external hiring. Controlling for a firm's training investment, we find that a one standard deviation increase in average external hiring costs increases the number of internal training positions by 0.7 standard deviations.

Activity theory and its concept of expansive learning are examined with the help of four questions: 1. Who are the subjects of learning? 2. Why do they learn? 3. What do they learn? 4. How do they learn? Five central principles of activity theory are presented, namely activity system as unit of analysis, multi-voicedness of activity, historicity of activity, contradictions as driving force of change in activity, and expansive cycles as possible form of transformation in activity. 

Holland College is diversifying its program offerings to meet the human resource needs of the growing e-health sector. The investment goes to a new e-Health Training and Industry Support Centre which will be established to provide skills training and industry collaboration.