Ensuring effective progression from vocational qualifications to higher education has become an important issue internationally as a part of government strategies to raise skill levels and to provide more equitable access to tertiary level study. From September 2008, the Government in England has begun to introduce a new set of qualifications for…

This paper explores the changes and continuities to apprenticeship in England since the 1960s. It argues that apprenticeship is primarily a model of learning that still has relevance for skill formation, personal development and employer need. It also argues that, since the late 1970s and the introduction of state-sponsored youth training,…

This paper provides an analysis of changing patterns of transition from before the second world to the end of the twentieth century. It examines the longer term changes in the occupational structure and the consequential transformation of the patterns of labour market entry for young people. It links labour market entry to subsequent early…

This paper argues that we have a theory--namely, opportunity structure theory--which can account for how school-to-work transitions were accomplished "then" and "now", and also why "now" is different from "then". Opportunity structures are formed primarily by the inter-relationships between family backgrounds, education, labour market processes…

This paper focuses on some of the conceptual implications of changes in youth transitions over the last 40 years. I argue that changes have often been exaggerated with researchers too enthusiastic to jump on theoretical bandwagons without due regard for empirical evidence. While I suggest that there are important changes that impact on the ways in…

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…

In this paper, we explore what happened to the young workers featured in the classic text "Young workers: From school to work." In this book, the authors made predictions about the labour market outcomes and careers for the young people in their study, classifying them into three groups: the "careerless", the "short-term careers" and the "extended…

This paper examines two competing systems of work organisation in the British construction industry and their consequences for learning. Under the traditional "adversarial" system, conflict, hostility and litigation between contractors are commonplace. Such a climate actively militates against collective learning and knowledge sharing between…

This paper argues that underlying the links being made between the need for educational change in responding to the knowledge economy is an evacuation of the content of curricula and a misplaced emphasis on "genericism" and experience. As an alternative the paper draws on ideas from Durkheim, Vygotsky and Bernstein to make the case for the…

Current political and economic discourses position employability as a responsibility of higher education, which deploys mechanisms such as supervised work experience (SWE) to embed employability skills development into the undergraduate curriculum. However, workplaces are socially constructed complex arenas of embodied knowledge that are gendered.…

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 examines what is entailed by taking a socio-epistemic or "knowledge-based" approach to considerations of curriculum and qualifications. The paper begins by examining the roots of disciplinary difference in the medieval universities and their treatment in contemporary scholarly work; discusses implications for curriculum and…

Full-time students engaged in part-time studies have been a subject of increasing academic attention. This study extends work in this area by examining: the extent to which full-time undergraduate students undertake part-time employment, the reasons for working whilst studying full-time and the extent to which students relate their part-time…

The paper analyses the labour market situation among youth with low or medium levels of formal education. The analyses focus on studying the effects of level of competence, grades and immigrant background. Which factors contribute to labour market success among this group of youth? And which factors may increase the risk of not getting into the…

This paper explores the nature of the relationship between Head Office and stores in a large British supermarket chain. It focuses on the role played by a range of technological tools available for managing the stock and connecting different parts of the productive system and the implications this has for employee learning in stores. The evidence…