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Work-related learning (WRL) can influence the quality of skills supply and affect young people's choices – it is not unusual for young people to seek employment in sectors where they have undertaken work experience placements. Despite the clear benefits of WRL, features of the rural economy, including isolation and business capacity, create barriers to WRL and to employer engagement. Commissioned by the NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and the Make Your Mark campaign, this is one of three reports looking at how organisations and businesses in different sectors can engage more effectively with education. The other reports focus on the creative and third sectors.

The study was aimed at assessing current provision of WRL to young people in UK rural economies, identifying benefits of and challenges to the engagement of employers. It aimed to identify ways in which barriers to engagement might be overcome, leading to increased activity involving employers and young people. The focus of the research is on opportunities for young people aged 14-19 in all types of programme, including work experience, wider WRL, vocational [General Certificate of Secondary Education] GCSEs and A-levels and the emerging Diplomas. The study challenges traditional approaches to WRL and examines models of engagement between innovative rural employers and 14-19 year olds, which provide the opportunity for young people to develop the skills necessary to succeed in the future. Case studies are used to highlight some of the key benefits for those participating: young people, schools and colleges, and rural economy employers.

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This paper seeks to advance research and practice related to the role of employers in all stages of the assessment process of work-based learning (WBL) within a tripartite relationship of higher education institution (HEI), student and employer. It proposes a research-informed quality enhancement framework to develop good practice in engaging employers as partners in assessment. The Enhancement Framework comprises three dimensions, each of which includes elements and questions generated by the experiences of WBL students, HEI staff and employers. The three dimensions of the Enhancement Framework are: (1) ‘premises of assessment’, encompassing issues of learning, inclusion, standards and value; (2) ‘practice’, encompassing stages of assessment made up of course design, assessment task, responsibilities, support, grading and feedback; and (3) ‘communication of assessment’, with the emphasis on role clarity, language and pathways. With its prompt questions the Enhancement Framework may be used as a capacity-building tool for promoting, sustaining, benchmarking and evaluating productive dialogue and critical reflection about assessment between WBL partners. The paper concludes by emphasising the need for professional development as well as policy and research development, so that assessment in WBL can more closely correspond to the potentially transformative nature of the learning experience.

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The fellowship provided the opportunity to explore, assess and observe electrical apprenticeship training and explore new and innovative industrial electrical products within the international arena. The author visited vocational training institutions in Norway, Germany and Scotland to review and appraise the securing of high retention rates, flexible apprentice programs, post apprenticeship pathways and the benefits of enhanced collaboration with industry. This fellowship program has resulted in a number of recommendations being made for adoption to enhance the quality of electrical apprenticeships.

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The International Specialised Skills Institute (ISSI) is an independent, national organisation that works with Australian governments, industry and education institutions to enable individuals to gain enhanced skills and experience in traditional trades, professions and leading-edge technologies. Fellows travel overseas and, upon their return, are required to pass on what they have learned through a detailed report, recommendations for improvements and delivering training activities. Show less

The premise of this research is that in recent years, vocational skills and further education policy has seen a sustained rise in prominence in the role of employers in its shaping. The notion of education and learning as having inherent worth is, it can be argued, losing ground to the primacy of the needs of industry, productivity and employers. Whereas influence within the system could once be described by a triangle between employers, providers and state, these reforms place the interests of employers as very much the dominant force in shaping state-funded technical and skills policy and provision, with the role of the state and certainly providers, relegated.

This project aims to give leaders space to reflect on these changes; to give a better frame of reference for their decision-making through a clearer understanding of the forces at work and how they affect the way they need to think about their provision and their businesses. It hopes to establish some of these boundaries by considering whether the balance between provider/employer/state in the FE system is shifting, and how this affects how leaders see their role, priorities and possibilities, as leaders both of organisations and of the sector as a whole.

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The Perkins review of engineering skills, published in November 2013, called for government, employers, educators and the profession to work together to increase engineering skills supply. [The government] has taken on many of the recommendations from the review as set out in this report written in partnership with the engineering community. The engineering community has looked at improving employer engagement across the education system. It has made a commitment to maintain the long-term work initiated by Perkins through the Engineering the Future consortium.

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Employability skills frameworks are a way of attempting to define, categorise, and systematise the skills and attributes that contribute to the complex definition of employability and identify skills that are important in the world of work. In school contexts, employability skills frameworks should provide strategic approaches to supporting young people to develop these relevant skills and ways in which that development can be monitored and assessed. Studio schools try to provide students with an environment that simulates genuine workplaces and a targeted 14-19 curriculum, aiming to ensure that all learning in the school is based on project-based learning and real work experience. The main skills framework used by studio schools is the CREATE framework, an employability skills framework originally conceptualised as being one of the defining aspects of the studio schools model. This research focused on the ways in which these schools engage with and implement the CREATE framework.

The project sought to answer the following research questions: How is the CREATE framework perceived and interpreted by the key architects of the studio school model, individual studio schools, senior leaders, teachers, students, and employers? How is the CREATE framework implemented in studio schools and used to shape the curriculum and activities to develop young people's employability and enterprise skills? In what ways can the CREATE framework facilitate partnerships between employers and studio schools and how does it help enact and guide the provision of experiences and activities?

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Apprenticeships are well suited to provide young people with an entry point into the labor market and to supply manufacturing enterprises with skilled workers. This report further investigates apprenticeship systems at a company level, focusing on the extent to which these practices deviate from the national apprenticeship frameworks and how companies are adapting to future skill needs. It builds on the analysis of national apprenticeship systems in the 2018 Eurofound report 'Adaptation of national apprenticeship systems to advanced manufacturing' [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 134.160] and summarises the results of 14 case studies of good practice in the manufacturing sector in five EU Member States (Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland and Italy) and two countries outside Europe (Australia and the United States). Situated in different national and sector-specific environments, all case studies are characterised by the aim to adjust apprenticeship programmes and/or practices in response to challenges emerging from advanced manufacturing technologies and processes. The case studies examine a series of different issues, notably context, drivers for implementing change, impact and crucial factors for success.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website.

The case studies are as follows: Modernisation of dual apprenticeship training at ABB: Germany / Eckhard Voss; Innovative practices at Airbus Operations in Hamburg: Germany / Eckhard Voss; Talent Tracks for gifted industrial apprentices: Denmark / Soren Kristensen; Knowledge centres for robot technology and automation: Denmark / Soren Kristensen; Jules Verne Manufacturing Academy: France / Djamel Messaoudi and Nicolas Farvaque; Job and Qualification Campus in transport: France / Djamel Messaoudi and Nicolas Farvaque; 'New' apprenticeships in the light of technological change: Ireland / Jeff Bridgford; Modernisation of a designated craft apprenticeship: Ireland / Jeff Bridgford; Bosch Industry 4.0 Talent Program: Italy / Anna Teselli and Pier Paolo Angelini; Higher apprenticeship in advanced manufacturing: Italy / Anna Teselli and Pier Paolo Angelini; Siemens higher apprenticeship pilot programme: Australia / Phil Toner and Damian Oliver; Varley Group: modernising apprenticeships: Australia / Keiko Yasukawa, Phil Toner and Damian Oliver; Adjusting apprenticeship at Oberg Industries: United States / Robert I. Lerman; Mechatronics Apprenticeship Program of Festo Didactic: United States / Bryan D. Kamm and Robert I. Lerman. Show less

Cross-border regions display significant economic, political, and cultural cooperation and represent a central feature of Europe - not least as innovation labs for the European integration project. A key example is the trinational French-German-Swiss Upper Rhine region. Each of the respective bordering countries displays a specific mode of regulation in VET. How do actors govern vocational education and training (VET) in this dynamic industry cluster in which distinct national political-administrative units do not overlap with the functional needs of employers and (future) employees?

Relying on expert interviews and document analysis, this chapter offers a novel comparison of the respective subnational units within each cross-border region. The institutional study finds a key pattern through which skill formation is institutionalised within the cross-border context: the leveraging of complementarities between distinct educational institutions. In combining the specific strengths of different national skills regimes, VET stakeholders in cross-border regions are in a position to enlarge the scope and capacities of their skill regime far beyond national borders.

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Explores employers' attitudes about the priority of apprenticeships for business, the economy and the [UK's] country's global competitiveness. Notes that over half of the respondents already recruiting apprentices believe that they offer greater value than hiring university graduates. Reveals that, although currently there appear to be a number of barriers to hiring apprentices, employers see apprentices as key to the future success of their business as well as supporting economic recovery and future prosperity.

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This article investigates a German initiative to fund a research programme on international development cooperation in vocational education and training (VET). It briefly describes the strands of the programme and critically reflects on them. It is considered important that this programme be initiated to stimulate research on international VET development cooperation because, while there are institutes for and programmes on VET research, research on VET is modest in volume compared with that of educational research on elementary or secondary education. The article also considers priority areas for VET research that are part of the programme and expands on these, using a number of VET research themes and topics.

An important conclusion is that in research on international VET development cooperation it is important to pursue a balanced approach by taking the practical, political, administrative and scientific factors into account. These factors all play a role at the national, regional and local levels. Too much pragmatism or too isolated a scientific specialisation should be avoided. Respectful cooperation between all the stakeholders is imperative, and is especially important in projects that combine researchers with a predominantly long-term perspective and teachers and managers with a mainly short-term outlook. Finally, I express the hope that more national governments would follow the example of Germany. Their doing so would definitely raise the profile of international VET research, which is absolutely needed.

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