Globalisation has had a major impact on the engineering industry as Pacific Rim countries undercut manufacturing costs and provide a more cost-effective location for many businesses. Engineering in Northern Ireland has mostly declined owing to increased competition from these countries. Engineering companies are now forced to streamline their…

Drawing on a mixed-methods study of in-service learning and skills sector (LSS) trainees, comprising beginning- and end-of-year surveys and six longitudinal case studies together with literature on trainees' development in the LSS, schools and higher education sectors, conceptual and practice development continua are proposed. Conceptions become…

In 2005, the UK government announced the development of a suite of employer-designed diplomas for 14-19 year olds linked to different industrial and commercial sectors. This article will reflect on some of the achievements and challenges of this major employer engagement initiative by drawing on three pieces of research: a review of Diploma…

This paper is about the way in which young people are increasingly adopting dual identities--worker and learner--during the long transition from full-time student to full-time worker. Part-time jobs undertaken while in full-time education provide opportunities for learning about work and may lead to full-time careers in the same industry area.…

The New Labour government identified the further education (FE) sector as a vehicle to deliver its central policies on social justice and economic competitiveness in England, which has led to a torrent of initiatives that have increased central scrutiny and control over FE. Although the connections between social justice, economic competitiveness…

The professional status of further education lecturers has been widely debated and contested within the published literature. This article presents the results of a series of semi-structured interviews undertaken with a small sample of college lecturers working within a partner college network in south-west England. Regardless of the level of the…

This study aims to explore the faculty and academic administrators' perception of strategic planning effectiveness (SPE) in a reform environment, measuring the impact of university type, gender, and job role. A total of 338 faculty members and 183 academic administrators who enrolled during the first semester of the 2007-08 term at a public and a…

The current policy intention, that all young people remain in some form of accredited education or training to the age of 18 by 2015, poses significant challenges. The jobs without training (JWT) group includes young people who are in full-time work and not in receipt of training leading to National Vocational Qualification level 2 (or above);…

This paper is a reflection on my journey in a work-based (WB) research project while completing my PhD at a large Australian university. The paper explores issues that arose as I studied strategic change in the university and my role evolved from that of a "change agent" working as part of a project team to that of a researcher. A case…

Learners preferentially take in and process information in diverse ways whilst teaching methods also vary presenting the possibility for mismatching teaching methods with learners' preferences leading to disengagement, ineffective learning and potential underperformance. Different research instruments have been used in the past to assess the…

This prison-based research is grounded upon "reflection-in-action", intertwining the accounts of a reflective prisoner and a reflective practitioner. Through use of ethnographic methods it seeks to make sense of the contradictions encountered while tutoring prisoners. The research story shows how meaning conflicts have been negotiated,…

School, parental and peer group effects have been identified as being influential in shaping the decision of students to participate in post-compulsory education, but the analysis of each effect separately is rare. Using a random effects logistic regression approach, estimates of the importance of school, parental and peer group effects on student…

In Scotland, both the present Scottish Government and previous Scottish Executive have put a great deal of emphasis on the continuing professional development (CPD) of educators. The further education (FE) sector has not been exempt, notably with the introduction of the "Teaching qualification (Further Education)" (TQFE) followed by…

Within education, the term "research" is used in a multiplicity of ways. This paper draws on my own reflection of how educational practitioners experience shifting relationships to research. It suggests that within the further education (FE) sector, professionalism in teaching is measured through observation in the form of the Ofsted…

The current paper draws on data derived from a small-scale ongoing longitudinal study of further education trainee teachers. It examines their experiences during and after the completion of their training. The study was conducted at a university in the English Midlands and sets trainees' experiences within the socio-economic and policy context.…