Vocational education and training (VET) have a key role to play in raising skill levels and improving a society’s productivity. In this important new book, a team of international experts argue that too often national VET policy has been formulated in ignorance of historical and political developments in other countries and without proper consideration of the social objectives that it might help achieve. Examining a wide range of contrasting international approaches and development strategies, this book demonstrates the central role of the state in implementing an effective system of VET and a
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Vocational education and training (VET) have a key role to play in raising skill levels and improving a society’s productivity. In this important new book, a team of international experts argue that too often national VET policy has been formulated in ignorance of historical and political developments in other countries and without proper consideration of the social objectives that it might help achieve. Examining a wide range of contrasting international approaches and development strategies, this book demonstrates the central role of the state in implementing an effective system of VET and assesses the extent to which different VET policies can promote equality in the labour market and social justice. Key themes include: the broader educational and social aims of VET; the nature of learning in vocational contexts; and the historical development of VET in the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
Contents: Part one: Historical developments - The role of the state in vocational education: a political analysis of the history of vocational education in the Netherlands / Anneke Westerhuis; Vocational education in France: a turbulent history and peripheral role / Jean-Paul Gehin; The German philosophy of vocational education / Wolf-Dietrich Greinert; The emergence and reinforcement of class and gender divisions through vocational education in England / Linda Clarke; Part two: Contrasting approaches to VET - School reform in America: can Dewey’s ideas save high school vocational education? / Theodore Lewis; Under American influence?: the making of modern German training in large Berlin enterprises at the beginning of the twentieth century / Georg Hanf; Towards a new paradigm of vocational learning / Paul Hager; 14-19 and lifelong learning: distinguishing between academic and vocational learning / Richard Pring; Part three: Valuing VET - Vocational education, work and the aims of economic activity / Christopher Winch; Social justice and vocational education / John Halliday; The multiple paradoxes of state power in the English education and training system / Ewart Keep; New developments in continuing vocational education and training reform in France / Philippe Mehaut; Workers’ education in the twentieth-century British labour movement: class, union and role / John Holford.
Individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 93.88 to TD/TNC 93.100.
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