This article builds on a previous 2004 "Journal of Vocational Education and Training" (JVET) contribution by Biemans et al., in which several possible pitfalls in designing and implementing competence-based education (CBE) were discussed. The present article reports on the results of an extensive research programme on competence…

The horizontal segregation of the workforce along gender lines tends to assign women to lower paid, lower status employment. Consequently, schemes to address segregation have focused on preparing women to enter non-traditional occupations through training and development processes. This article examines models to encourage women into…

This article argues that research on gender and adult learning too often regards men and women as unified and separate groups, and does not take intra-gender variation into account. It presents one possible approach to address this problem, in a study of 142 women and 35 men attending basic computer courses in Swedish municipal adult education…

The Chinese economy is now a major driver of growth in the world economy. As a consequence, significant reforms were introduced which impacted on its educational systems. China is facing unprecedented pressure to produce skilled individuals to meet the demands of this rapid growth. China is in the unique position of operating in a dual system,…

Since 2001 there has been a renewed government focus on skills development and its relationship with combating unemployment in Ghana. Technical and vocational education and training (hereinafter; TVET), delivered through public and private schools, vocational training institutes and informal apprenticeship training, continues to be seen as an…

Teachers, students and professionals have confirmed the need to introduce skills into business administration and accounting education in Spain. However, this change has not taken place at any desirable level. This paper uses the New Institutional Sociology (NIS) to analyse the pressures to introduce the policy that consists of the incorporation…

One of the features of foundation degrees (FDs) is the incorporation of work-based learning (WBL) into the curriculum. WBL is seen as an important part of vocational programmes and is described by Foundation Degrees Forward (FDF) as a potentially radical approach to connecting work with learning. The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), in its…

This Canadian study investigated how the transfer of learning occurred in an employment preparation programme for adults with low literacy skills using a multi-site case study research design. Four different programmes involving trainees, instructors and workplace supervisors participated in the investigation. Results indicated that the transfer…

There is limited awareness and knowledge of how teacher pedagogical reasoning and practice develops when teachers use information and communications technology (ICT). This is particularly so in the vocational education and training (VET) sector, where there is only limited awareness and knowledge of this territory. As the VET sector moves…

Operating a quality assurance system in tertiary education is the rule rather than the exception, because of the belief that it will improve quality. However, proving this is not easy. This study examines three ways of providing the evidence: the a "priori" method, the stepwise backtracking method, and the external evaluation method. The…

Research evidence shows that a career dialogue is a central part of any powerful learning environment for career learning. In vocational education and training, there are three important parties in this dialogue: the student, the teacher and the mentor from practice. In this paper the communication between these parties is investigated in…

The use of participant observation is relatively rare in qualitative studies of vocational education and training. However, such an approach provides a detailed picture of training content and how what is taught contributes to or impedes learning. Based on participant observation, this paper examines the training of sales advisors in a large chain…

An intuitively appealing approach to increasing the flexibility of vocational education and training is to delegate choices on instruction, such as the selection of learning tasks, to students. However, empirical evidence shows that students often do not have sufficiently developed self-directed learning skills to select suitable tasks. This…

Consistency of assessor judgement is a key concern for those charged with accrediting vocationally related learning outcomes. Literature suggests that the consistency of assessor judgements can be affected by the breadth of vocationally related contexts and concomitant learner and assessor experiences. It is important to understand how experts…

This article describes how competence-based learning (CBL) can be organised in vocational education by integrating elements from a holistic instructional design model with recent ideas on assessment. A curriculum based on this model is pre-eminently suitable for an assessment approach emphasising that proof of competence is gathered by having…