Helping students develop the employability skills and professional capabilities they will need to transition into graduate roles is one of the most important mandates for university study. With this context in mind, this paper analyses the nature and implications of Australian university students' participation in paid work during study. The…

While acknowledging that a system of vocational qualifications might be perceived as having any number of possible purposes, this paper identifies three primary functions that any vocational qualification must fulfil by dint of being a vocational qualification. It is argued that current arrangements are unable to fulfil these essential functions…

Participation in job-related training as part and parcel of lifelong learning is widely advocated. While many empirical research about job-related training of employees are about advanced western economies, little is known about advanced Asian economies. To fill this void in the literature, this study applies the human capital, institutional and…

Since the 1980s, growing globalisation and economic restructuring coupled with expansion of tertiary education contributed to tremendous change in the labour market entry process in Europe. Most previous studies have been quantitative, concentrated on the supply aspect and analysed the role of education as the explanatory variable of youth labour…

It can be difficult for students to relate theoretical knowledge and practical skills when making the transition from the classroom to professional practice. The concept of coherence has been suggested as an appropriate way to address how the relationships involved (i.e. between theoretical knowledge and practical skills and between classroom…

Despite the development of employability skills being firmly entrenched in higher education's strategic agenda worldwide; recent graduates' standards in certain skills are not meeting industry expectations. This paper presents and tests a model of undergraduate competence in employability skills. It highlights those factors which impact…

This paper reports on recent research into enterprise skill profiles and workplace training practices in the Bangladesh manufacturing industry. The article presents survey and interview data for 37 enterprises across eight manufacturing sectors collected during a study for the International Labour Organisation. The research analysed enterprise and…

Qualifications frameworks are political instruments that are supposed to facilitate the assessment of learning outcomes. They are hoped to be drivers for change since they are meant to provide the impetus for a number of fundamental reforms required in education and training systems. These considerations frame the design and implementation of…

This article focuses on a range of macro-level issues that frame debates about industry/education interaction in the UK. It explores a number of features that underpin the structure of the debate, including the declining "Britishness" of much of British business and the emergence of business as a for-profit provider of learning. It then reviews…

Research has shown that the majority of school students combine full-time education with part-time employment. To date educationalists have paid little attention to this, in part due to the negative views about the "quality" of such work and its effect on educational attainment. In this research, a case study approach is used to explore the…

Entry to Employment (E2E) is a work-based learning programme aimed at 16-19 year-olds in England deemed not yet ready for employment, an apprenticeship or further education and training. Taking into account educational, social and personal circumstances which are often severely disadvantaged, it aspires to provide these young people with training…

This paper develops a social realist critique of competency-based training (CBT) by drawing on the philosophy of critical realism and the sociology of Basil Bernstein as complementary modes of analysis. CBT is the mandated model of curriculum in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia. It results in an impoverished…

This article is concerned with the production and employment of technically skilled labour at the intermediate level in South Africa. Three differing labour market pathways to intermediate skilling are identified. These are: the traditional apprenticeship route, the new "Learnerships" pathway (similar to the "modern apprenticeship" schemes adopted…

Current UK skills policy is centred on the need to drive up qualification obtainment and make the system more employer-led with Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) being given the role of articulating the "voice" of employers. Through a study of recruitment and selection processes in the fitness industry, this paper explores employers' attitudes to…

The transition from school to work has been intensely examined by different disciplines. However, this transition has rarely been examined in relation to the experiences acquired by young people in their free time, from a longitudinal perspective. This article analyses the impact of one type of experience, membership in organisations, in the young…