The widespread use of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in the higher education sector in recent years highlights the importance of forging successful relationships with employers, business, industry and government. This article reports on a large ethnographic study conducted by Victoria University into host organisations' perceptions of WIL.…

This article examines the goals of employers when they organise work placements for students. It explores how far, in cooperating with polytechnics, employers adhere to a connective model of students' work experiences within their organisations. The paper makes use of a quantitative study based on employers' responses to a questionnaire…

Based on the results of transition studies in the UK, Germany, USA and Canada, the virtues of analysing the structural contexts, institutional arrangements and the young peoples' action orientations are presented. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, school and the labour market have become more and more decoupled and transition routes…

As one of the world's largest exporters of asparagus, Peru has developed a high-tech system of asparagus production, processing and delivery that requires well-trained and responsive workers. In this study we examine the role of both private and public sectors in preparing workers for the asparagus industry and the implications of this skill…

Thirty-six per cent of 18-19-year-old sixth-form and further education college leavers in the UK currently go on to university. A majority of the remaining 64 percent apparently go into work or work-related training. Yet, for this latter group, as with the former, 16-19 education was supposed by the Department for Education and Employment to equip…

This paper argues that the current skill strategies of New Labour (in England) and the Labour-led Coalition (in New Zealand) are part of a broader project to construct contrasting markets in education and training. On one hand, the skill strategies are helping to construct open education and training markets through creating institutional-based…

Contains eight articles describing the implementation and outcomes of National Qualifications Frameworks (NQF) in Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and France. Topics include NQF as a global phenomenon, neoliberal influences, and epistemological issues. (SK)

A work-based learning initiative was examined in interviews and focus groups with 110 disaffected/at-risk British youth. Results show how configurations of networks and values at macro, meso, and micro levels enhance or constrain social learning and the ability to develop forms of cultural practice and social capital that aid school-to-work…

Focus groups with 43 British preservice teachers preparing for the postcompulsory sector revealed their concerns about facilitating learning for "second-chance" students and some emancipatory and social justice ideals. However, they tended to express technicist ideas of teaching and constructions of "good" and "bad" students that contradicted…

The stories of two British students in transition to postcompulsory education show how one reflected upon and was transformed by actions in the new environment. Learning and work experiences were a form of cultural apprenticeship, a social learning process that transcended relationships in formal educational institutions. (Contains 40 references.)…

Uses the example of Germany to examine how a center for vocational education and training is created, the effects on national policies, and the basis for determining center-periphery relationships. Concludes that, because vocational education is embedded in sociocultural contexts, transnational transfer of vocational education systems may be…

In the post-Communist Eastern Europe, the scope and nature of vocational education are determined by labor demand, academic/general education is considered suitable for all ability levels, and responsibility for and financing of education has been privatized. Advantages of the new model--well-educated youth labor force and customized vocational…

Three studies of British full-time students aged 16-19 found 70-80% also worked part time. A typology of their school-work attitudes was developed: balancers, risk-takers, deliberate nonworkers, outsiders, and connectors. Reforms in advanced-level curriculum may affect the relationship between school and part-time work in several ways:…

Presents a theoretical framework that classifies autonomy as procedural/technical, personal/practical, or critical. Discusses sociocultural barriers to learning motivation and identifies which assessment practices foster which type of autonomy. (Contains 71 references.) (SK)

Based on research in South Wales, a sociological theory of participation in education and training is developed, identifying types of orientations: functional avoidance, instrumental credentialism, and vocational transformation. The inclusion of sociological insights in human-capital development policy is recommended. (SK)