Search results

In this paper the author reports on programs in Wisconsin and Scotland that were part of an international study tour to investigate the sustainability of vocational education programs. The school-to-work framework developed and implemented in Wisconsin provides clear strategies by which teachers, industry partners, parents and the wider school community collaborate. In Scotland, the Lothian Education Business Partnership (EBP), based in Edinburgh, encourages education and business to work together to create links across the region which are strongly supported by the central education and business agencies. Schools are required to develop formal plans in the area of education-industry links, and to produce a report on the standards and quality of those links. The author contends that these programs suggest that greater cohesion and accountability of effort and activity at the local level would bring rewards for Australian students in their transition from school to work, and that there is much in these programs worth borrowing.