This article analyses how Finnish vocational teachers make sense of the meanings of gender in their work. The context of the study consists of the two most gender segregated environments of vocational education: the female-dominated Sector of Health and Social Services and the male-dominated Sector of Technology and Transport. Our analysis draws…

In this article we intend to contribute to the understanding of interest-driven learning which occurs when people find and choose an interest of their own. This engagement continues over a long time and includes development and learning. The empirical material consists of 14 "learning stories" written by experienced and skilled…

Data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy were examined to determine if non-native-born adults in the US differ from their native-born counterparts in (1) participation in work-related training or education, and (2) perceptions that specific skills limit their job opportunities. Results indicated that non-native-born persons were…

This article traces the EC vocational training policy historically and describes the discursive alignments which brought the policy from a "common vocational training policy" as laid down in Article 128, in the Treaty of Rome to the Lisbon Lifelong Learning strategy. The argument is that vocational training has served as a lever for the…

The aim of this paper, based on a comparative viewpoint from an European outsider perspective, is to present a brief historical reconstruction of the pedagogical and educational political discussion about education for the industrial sector in America. The discussion was triggered by the emerging idea that one of the principal tasks of education…

Vocational training and skills are playing an increasingly important role in the developed economies. However, both the vocational education structure and the underlying philosophy and culture of education and training vary from country to country. What is clear, though, is that employers play a crucial role in all cases; this paper explores the…

As the major supplier of skilled and certified labour, vocational and professional education (VPE) fuels the engine of economic growth. As such, it is directly implicated in the reproduction of productivism, the globally dominant ethos which presupposes that economic growth and paid work are permanent and necessary features of human existence,…

This article argues that intuition is a crucial component of professional competence, and provides empirical evidence to support this claim. It was found that in most cases intuitive predictions of stock market development are better than rationally justified ones and that experts predict more precisely than novices on a descriptive data level.…

This paper examines how the knowledge culture of computer engineering--that is, the ways in which knowledge is produced, distributed, accumulated and collectively approached within this profession--serve to construct work-based learning in specific ways. Typically, the epistemic infrastructures take the form of information structures with a global…

In this paper, we critically analyze how the concept of negative knowledge contributes to the understanding of professionals' expert practice and learning. Negative knowledge is experientially acquired knowledge about what is wrong and what is to be avoided during performance in a given work situation. In terms of its theoretical foundation, the…

This paper argues that Amartya Sen's ("Development as freedom," New York: Random House, 1999) concept of "capabilities" provides a useful framework for interpreting the brokering of learning provisions that emerged as a key feature of reforms to education and training in Queensland (Australia) for young people. Sen's capability…

This paper examines the notion of "competence" in the VET systems of France and England. While both countries have developed "competence-based" approaches, underlying the similar terminology are distinct meanings, rooted in the countries' institutional structures and labour processes. A key distinction is identified between a…