This paper examines the experiences of a group of 16- to 18-year-old students in two publicly funded London schools who did not conform to expectations and rejected university as a post-school destination. The students' experiences offer insights into how current Higher Education (HE) policy in England combined with a competitive school market…

?n a policy context in which the harmonisation of HE curricula towards connection with the labour market is pursued, the article seeks to elucidate under-theorised and over-aggregated accounts of the role of the field of study in graduate employability and to investigate it from a new analytical angle to explain variations between fields. Using…

Driven by global rankings and national quality assurance (QA) initiatives, Taiwan's higher education institutions were encouraged to develop strategic plans and initiatives, in order to improve graduate student employability. The purpose of this study is to explore the polices and strategies adopted by Taiwanese higher education institutions, with…

The engagement of quality assurance in the recognition process of overseas qualifications became an emerging issue in Asian nations with the increased interest in student mobility in the region in the 21st Century. This study explores the links between quality assurance and qualification recognition, and approaches adopted within national…

This paper reviews evidence on two serious imbalances in the UK education and training system: The heavy bias in public spending on initial education and training (for 18-24-year olds) towards higher education at the expense of further education and vocational education and training. The very weak government support for continuing education and…

The question addressed in this paper is why expanding Higher Education (HE) has become the default policy position in England. One answer concerns the reluctance by employers to train. The paper adopts an historical perspective on the policy reviews into this issue which have displayed a remarkable policy amnesia, employers have not been engaged.…

Further education policy across the UK has diverged significantly over the last decade. While in both countries colleges have been subject to a programme of restructuring and rationalisation, Scotland now has a largely 'nationalised' sector while England has adopted a more market-led approach which has been characterised in some quarters as a…

This paper contextualises the Further Education (FE) sector in Northern Ireland (NI). It outlines the specific political, social and economic influences that have shaped its position as a major but understated educational provider in what remains a highly divided educational system that is slowly transitioning in a post-conflict environment. Key…

This article considers the implications of a 'managed' approach to skills policy in Scotland, in which Government policy and the role of national institutional frameworks can be seen to be influential, and which contrasts with the more marketised approach which has been a central aspect of policy in England. A number of themes within these…

This article provides a response to the other contributions in this special issue and explores the range and scale of the opportunities for policy learning across the four UK nations. It addresses the importance of locating FE and skills policy within wider national policy contexts, national choices between markets and systems and the wider…

This paper investigates the impact of higher education characteristics on economic performance. Despite a relatively plethoric literature, there is still a clear lack of understanding of the interaction of teaching and training with knowledge, innovation and economic performance; the heterogeneity across levels of economic development; and the…

This article presents the major findings of an international study that attempted to investigate the labour market outcomes of qualifications frameworks in six countries--Belize, France, Ireland, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia, as well as the regional framework in the Caribbean. It finds limited evidence of success, but fairly strong support for…

National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) are a global phenomenon. This is evidenced by their scale, coverage and intrinsic link with education policy across Europe and beyond. Research into their impact has encompassed a number of perspectives; theoretical, practical and evaluative. Yet, despite the existence of critical literature related to the…

This article provides a picture on the contribution of David Raffe to European cooperation in the field of vocational education and training (VET). It is based on the experiences of the author and his colleagues on European events and projects in which David participated from the early 1990s until 2009. The Section 2 gives impressions of David's…

This article seeks to provide a school perspective on the nature and quality of the partnerships which schools form with businesses in order to deliver work placements and workplace learning in Australia. It found that the ability of schools to engage with external partners depended on the ability of school leaders to define and communicate the…