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There are growing expectations that tertiary education graduates will be ready for working life, that is, possessing the capacities to participate effectively in an occupational practice in a specific work situation. Yet, graduates are often unprepared to fulfil this expectation. In response, tertiary education increasingly includes workplace experiences (i.e., practicums, internships, and work placements). It is necessary to understand these experiences' efficacy and their optimisation to promote work-life readiness. Drawing on students' experiences of internships, this paper discusses what constitutes the value of internships in post-secondary diploma courses in Singapore.

A quantitative analysis of interview data identified the contributions afforded through these experiences in workplaces - students' intentional engagement, and their readiness for working life. Central here is how these contributions promote the development of the adaptability required for effective participation in contemporary working life. The analysis identifies challenges including students' adapting to new work environments, navigating workplace practices, and developing occupational capacities. Workplace supervisors' and host educational institutions' support suggests interns' adaptability can be enhanced by promoting the relations between the support they received, on the one hand, and their engagement with challenges during internships, on the other. These findings offer an understanding about the experiences and outcomes of interns' learning through workplaces and offer implications for supporting and augmenting transitions into working life.

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This book addresses what is, perhaps, the single most important issue for vocational education; its relatively low standing in an era of high aspiration. The work explores the nature, extent and consequences for an educational sector that whilst having an increasingly important role in contemporary societies is seen to be of low standing across both countries with developed and developing economies. Some of the standing is associated with the occupation it serves and this is highlighted in an era of high aspiration by young people and their parents. The consequences are far-reaching. This includes how governments and community view and support vocational education, parents and familiars advise about participation in it and young people's decision-making associated with their post-school pathways.

More than describing this problem, the focus of this collection is how this issue can be redressed through the actions of supra-government agencies, governments, schools in tertiary education institutions, industry and professional bodies and employers. It sets out the quality and extent of societal sentiments in shaping how vocational education and the occupation it serves are projected, across countries, continents and cultures, and offers a range of perspectives and contributions from scholars on how this issue might be redressed. These contributions are drawn together and synthesised into sets of propositions, practices and approaches directed towards governments, schooling and tertiary education institutions, educators, researchers, industry and professional bodies and employers.

Edited excerpt from publisher's website.

The contents are as follows: Part one, 'The standing of vocational education: perennial issues, emerging concerns and ways forward', contains the following chapters: The standing of vocational education: a global concern with diverse meanings and implications / Barbara E. Stalder, Sarojni Choy, Anh Hai Le; Enhancing the standing and status of vocational education / Stephen Billett, Steven Hodge, Vibe Aarkrog. Part two, 'Issues, sources and consequences of the standing and status of vocational education', contains: Understanding the purpose and standing of technical and vocational education and training / Susan James Relly; Improving the standing of [vocational education and training] VET: perspectives from countries with developing economies / Stephen Billett, Anh Hai Le; The standing of dual apprenticeships in Germany: institutional stability and current challenges / Thomas Deissinger; Shaping young people's decision-making about post-school pathways: institutional and personal factors / Stephen Billett, Darryl Dymock, Steven Hodge, Sarojni Choy, Anh Hai Le.

Part three, 'Country studies of the standing of vocational education and the occupations it serves', contains the following chapters: Alternance training as a way to improve the attractivity of vocational education programmes in France / Laurent Veillard; Promoting the standing of VET in Finland: balancing the different aims of VET / Heta Rintala, Petri Nokelainen; Attractiveness of vocational education and training in India: perspectives of different actors with a special focus on employers / Matthias Pilz, Muthuveeran Ramasamy; The quality and status of school-based Norwegian VET / Hilde Hiim; Perspectives on informing post-school pathways: a Vietnamese case study / Anh Hai Le; Enhancing the standing of VET in Switzerland / Barbara E. Stalder, Fabienne Luthi; The significance of learning environment and decision-making for enrolment in and completion of VET: a Danish case / Vibe Aarkrog; Elevating the standing of vocational education and training in Romania / Maria-Carmen Pantea.

Part four, 'Enhancing the standing and status of vocational education: an Australian study', contains the following chapters: Investigating enhancing the standing of vocational education and the occupation it serves: purposes, processes and phases / Stephen Billett, Sarojni Choy, Steven Hodge, Anh Hai Le; Influences on post-school decision-making: perspectives of school students, parents, teachers (phase 1); Steven Hodge, Stephen Billett, Sarojni Choy; Surveys of students, parents and teachers (phase 2) / Sarojni Choy, Anh Hai Le, Steven Hodge, Stephen Billett; Informing and advising the zones of influence shaping young people's decision-making about post-school pathways (phase 3) / Stephen Billett, Darryl Dymock, Sarojni Choy, Steven Hodge, Anh Hai Le.

Individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 148.657 to TD/TNC 148.674. Show less

Investigating issues associated with and strategies for enhancing the standing of vocational education necessarily involves engaging with a range of perspectives, insights and suggestions. This includes those who organise and implement educational experiences, those who enact them, and also those who directly influence the decision-making of young people, as well as those young people themselves. Of course, such a venture means capturing and comparing, contrasting and evaluating those perspectives. As insights and perspectives need to be captured in some detail, qualitative approaches to data gathering and analysis are essential. On the other, quantitative analysis is required to identify patterns across cohorts of informants and analyse their weightings and rankings. Accordingly, this chapter sets out the rationale for and approaches adopted in an investigation about enhancing the status of vocational education and the occupations it serves in Queensland, Australia.

The investigation comprised an initial round of focus groups and interviews with school-age students, teachers and parents, students in vocational education institutions and their teachers (Phase 1). A careful analysis of focus group data, interview transcripts and surveys gathered through these interviews were then used to develop a survey that was administered nationally (Phase 2). That survey extended the scope of the study and the range of informants and provided a platform for quantitative analysis and comparisons of perspectives and suggestions of distinct cohorts of informants. Then, in Phase 3, suggestions about enhancing the status of vocational education were identified through a series of focus groups with school administrators and teachers. Weighting to sets of suggestions about what government, industry, schools, and teachers might do to offer well informed and impartial advice and engage with information about potential postschool pathways were analysed.

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This book discusses how the Dutch vocational education system has undergone significant waves of reform driven by global imperatives, national concerns and governmental policy goals. Like elsewhere, the impetuses for these reforms are directed to generating a more industry-responsive, locally-accountable and competence-based vocational education system. Each wave of reforms, however, has had particular emphases, and was directed to achieve particular policy outcomes. Yet, they are more than mere versions of what had or is occurring elsewhere. They are shaped by specific national imperatives, sentiments and localised concerns. Consequently, whilst this book elaborates what constitutes the contemporary provision of vocational education in the Netherlands, it also addresses a broader concern of how vocational education systems become formed, manifested within nation states and then transformed through particular imperatives, institutional arrangement and localised factors.

Excerpt from publisher's website.

The contents are as follows: Part one, 'Introduction', contains the following chapter: Vocational education in the Netherlands / Elly de Bruijn, Stephen Billett, and Jeroen Onstenk (pages 3-36). Part two, 'Policies and organisations', contains: Vocational and professional education and lifelong learning / Jeroen Onstenk and Ruud Duvekot (pages 39-56); Transforming vocational education: encouraging innovation via public private partnerships / Marc van der Meer, Jan Peter van den Toren, and Tammy Lie (pages 57-82); Great expectations: VET's meaning for Dutch local industry / Anneke Westerhuis and Marc van der Meer (pages 83-102); Improvement of educational quality in VET: who is next? / Louise van de Venne, Marlies Honingh, and Marieke van Genugten (pages 103-118); Professional development of teachers in vocational education / Marcel van der Klink and Jan Streumer (pages 119-136).

Part three, 'Educational programmes: teaching and learning', contains the following chapters: A dialogue worth having: vocational competence, career identity and a learning environment for twenty-first century success at work / Frans Meijers, Reinekke Lengelle, Annemie Winters, and Marinka Kuijpers (page 139-155); The role and nature of knowledge in vocational programmes / Elly de Bruijn and Arthur Bakker (pages 157-174); Designing competence-based vocational curricula at the school-work boundary / Renate Wesselink and Ilya Zitter (pages 175-194); Pedagogic strategies for improving students' engagement and development / Truus Harms, Aimee Hoeve, and Peter den Boer (pages 195-218); Work-based learning (WBL) in Dutch vocational education: connecting learning places, learning content and learning processes / Jeroen Onstenk (pages 219-243); Assessment in Dutch vocational education: overview and tensions of the past 15 years / Liesbeth Baartman and Judith Gulikers (pages 245-266). Part five, 'End piece', contains: The Dutch vocational education system: institutional focus and transformations / Stephen Billett (pages 269-294). Show less

In 2021, we invited expert vocational voices from the vocational education and training (VET) sector to share their views, stories, experiences and insights on a range of hot topics. This podcast is a roundup of interesting snippets and research findings from across the four podcast episodes released during the year. Full of short and sharp insights from each of our guest speakers, we cover off some of the best bits of Season 6.

Edited abstract from publisher's website. Show less

The purposes and implementation of adults' lifelong education (LLE) has been shaped by two imperatives: i) neoliberal reforms and ii) focuses on employability and economic outcomes. This has led to LLE taking similar pathways across many countries, i.e., away from a focus on personal and cultural betterment, to one associated with promoting individual employability. However, policies and practices in Japan offers a nuanced contrast to the general trend. That is, the overall focus on LLE, particularly for older Japanese is premised on social engagement, personal enrichment and often captured in 'social education'. There is also a focus on sustaining the adult employability, including the re-employment of retirees, in structured ways and tailored to meet their needs and enacted at the local level.

This paper reviews the manifestations of LLE in Japan to examine how its goals and educational provisions are being developed, enacted, engaged with and evaluated. Overall, it is suggested that Japan has not wholly embraced the tight economic focus on promoting and supporting LLE associated with employability imperatives. Perhaps through the electoral power of the aged population, the provision of educational experiences is focused on longevity, cultural betterment, further education and reducing the social isolation of older Japanese.

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This book discusses how policies and practices supporting post-school transitions are formulated by and enacted in education systems and schools. It outlines how students, parents, and others in the community engage in these policies. It does this by drawing upon accounts from a range of countries with advanced industrial economies where the expectations for successful transitions are increasingly being aligned to individual, community, and national economic well-being. In countries such as Britain, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States, social and economic changes are heightening the importance of young peoples’ transitions from secondary schooling to post-school life in contemporary times. Such transitions now involve negotiations of diverse and sometimes complex educational and work-related pathways.

Excerpt from publication.

The chapters are as follows: Part one, ‘School transitions: overview, policy orientations and theorisations’, contains: Experiences of school transitions: policies, practice and participants / Stephen Billett and Greer Johnson; Reconciling the system world with the life worlds of young adults: where next for youth transition policies? / Karen Evans; Bridging school and work: a person-in-context model for enabling resilience in at-risk youth / Christopher DeLuca, Nancy L. Hutchinson, Joan Versnel, Jennifer Dods, and Peter Chin; Part two, ‘Imperatives for and practices of transitions: international perspectives’, contains: The American shortcut to VET: global policy borrowing for the post-16 educational arena / Richard D. Lakes and Antje Barabasch; Access, coping and relevance of education in youth transitions: the German transition system between labour society and knowledge society / Andreas Walther; Making the transition to post-school life: the Canadian situation / Wolfgang Lehmann; School-to-work transitions in apprenticeship-based VET systems: the Swiss approach / Barbara E. Stalder; Governing schooling, people and practices: Australian policies on transitions / Sue Thomas and Stephen Hay; Part three, ‘Experiences of schooling: contemporary practices and experiences’, contains: Researching transition experiences in Australian senior schooling / Jill Ryan, Greer Johnson, and Stephen Billett; Excluded from the game: a case study of transitions for non-tertiary-bound students in a Queensland private school; Pathways and choice: transitions at Sunny Beach College / Sue Thomas and Jill Ryan; A critical focus on family-school-community partnerships: St Jude’s Secondary College transition program for ‘at-risk’ students / Greer Johnson and Stephen Billett; The impact of interrupted schooling: recent school leavers’ accounts of transitions / Esther Beltermann, Jill Ryan, and Stephen Billett; The translation of transitions policies into school enactment / Cheryl Sim, Stephen Hay, Greer Johnson, and Sue Thomas. Show less

This chapter introduces the Dutch vocational education system and aims to foster an understanding of how it currently works. It describes and discusses the features of this system and the foundational issues that underlie it. Patterns of participation show the crucial position of vocational education in the overall education system in the Netherlands. It provides opportunities for supporting promising educational careers and positive positions in the labour market. The system design is to be without 'dead ends': everybody is supposed to leave the system with a fitting qualification. However, this design has proven to be less promising in its realization. Early tracking foreshadows pathways and makes some careers, if not dead ends, difficult, elevating the risk of dropping out. Five fundamental issues are highlighted when discussing the current Dutch vocational education system in practice in this chapter. Firstly, within a public frame, vocational education is a product of cooperation amongst various stakeholders. The specifics of the private-public frame are helpful for understanding the processes by which Dutch vocational education is uniquely shaped, and lead to its specific kinds of programmes and cooperation between schools and enterprises. The freedom of education concept comprises a second issue. Thirdly, tensions between accessibility and allocation to labour market and, fourthly, between educating for the short term and the longer term future are common to most vocational education systems, albeit manifested differently because of the national peculiarities. Fifthly, the current expectation for the Dutch public provision of vocational education contributing to lifelong learning of workers is a challenge for the future and, already, testing its capacity as a system to support this goal.

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This chapter draws on the contributions of the reviews and country-based studies in this volume to identify the bases for and ways in which the standing of vocational education (VET) and the occupations it serves can be enhanced so it is positioned as a more worthwhile, viable and legitimate post-school pathway. Acknowledging that the likely responses will be shaped by the educational systems in nation states and regions, where and how VET is positioned within them and the kinds and range of influences shaping young people and their parent and familiars' decision-making about VET. Across these countries, both with developed and developing economic bases, it would seem that high aspirations and, increasingly, expectations of young people and their parents and other familiars is quite consistently positioning VET as being an inferior post-school option to participation in higher education (HE) and one that is seen as being posterior to it in terms of status, attractiveness and educational outcomes.

Addressing and rebutting such strong societal sentiments about the forms of work and an educational provision that are seen as undesirable will likely require addressing these circumstances locally and regionally. As VET is strongly aligned with occupations, making it more interesting, engaging and attractive to young people is also closely linked with the standing of occupations. So, there is a need to find ways to redress the concerns within the community and address the factors which limit the ability of VET to deliver its full potential to students, communities and nations. So, in sum, this chapter sets out this case drawing upon the collective contributions in this volume and a wider range of literature that addresses these challenges.

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A more holistic continuing education and training system, one that acknowledges, supports and recognises the value of work-based learning, would better address the ongoing needs of Australian workers. But a widespread learning culture with support from policy-makers, employers, training providers and employees is required to make the most of such a system. These are some of the findings to emerge from a three-year program of research that aimed to investigate what might form the basis of an effective continuing education and training system. This report discusses the final stage of the project and proposes ways forward.

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