This book draws on experiences from a range of vocational education systems in different nation states and re-examines the purpose of providing experiences outside educational institutions; the kinds and extent of those experiences; and efforts made to ensure the integration of students’ experiences across sites. Analyses of the various vocational education systems, their purposes and practices across nations, and challenges experienced by different stakeholders illustrate different approaches to the integration of learning at different sites. The book includes a consideration of what constitutes the integration and reconciliation of experiences, and their attendant educational implications. This extends an appraisal of the concepts of integration, reconciliation, curriculum and work readiness, each of which has a range of connotations. Integration or reconciliation is differentiated from transfer of learning, which is commonly based on simple assumptions that the educational institutions will provide theory and that the workplaces will provide practice from the workplaces, and that the two can be easily linked by students. The contributions from different nation states clearly demonstrate that integration is a collaborative process and requires the agency of stakeholders operating at global, national and specific learning site levels.

This book draws on experiences from a range of vocational education systems in different nation states and re-examines the purpose of providing experiences outside educational institutions; the kinds and extent of those experiences; and efforts made to ensure the integration of students’ experiences across sites. Analyses of the various vocational education systems, their purposes and practices across nations, and challenges experienced by different stakeholders illustrate different approaches to the integration of learning at different sites. The book includes a consideration of what constitutes the integration and reconciliation of experiences, and their attendant educational implications. This extends an appraisal of the concepts of integration, reconciliation, curriculum and work readiness, each of which has a range of connotations. Integration or reconciliation is differentiated from transfer of learning, which is commonly based on simple assumptions that the educational institutions will provide theory and that the workplaces will provide practice from the workplaces, and that the two can be easily linked by students. The contributions from different nation states clearly demonstrate that integration is a collaborative process and requires the agency of stakeholders operating at global, national and specific learning site levels.

The German vocational education and training (VET) system is admired around the world for its ability to prepare young people for skilled employment. In Germany, VET smooths transitions into work and is closely aligned with labour market demand. This report focuses on an unprecedented test of the German VET system: how to respond to the significant increase in migrants who arrived in the country in 2015-16. The study explores both the opportunities and the challenges presented by migration.

Future-oriented education needs to invest in the connectivity between learning and working in order to realise its full potential. This book presents guiding principles on how to build these successful connections. By taking an educational perspective and enriching it with insights from human resource development, this book explores the why, how and what of designing for connectivity. This edited volume presents the current knowledge about educational practices and principles that help to realise connectivity between learning and working experiences. Introducing the central perspectives of workplace learning and learning environments at the boundary of school and work, this book presents key research that examines how educators and professionals from organisations and schools can come together with the purpose of realising connectivity in educational programmes. Empirical research showcasing both theoretical and practical insights from real life cases are at the heart of this book. Considering the barriers to achieving connectivity, this book also focuses on how it can be achieved, with ideas and guidance about communication, design principles and best practices. Using carefully chosen international examples, this book is ideal reading for policy makers, practitioners and researchers looking to learn more about connecting learning and working experiences.

Vocational education and training (VET) plays a central role in preparing young people for work, developing the skills of adults and responding to the labour-market needs of the economy. Teachers and leaders in VET can have an immediate and positive influence on learners’ skills, employability and career development.

This, the first comprehensive academic volume on vocational education and training (VET) or career and technical education in the United States, features insights into a variety of issues in this field of research. The international reader will find an up-to-date synthesis as well as a critical analysis of the relevant history, philosophy, governance, legislation and organizational structures. The coverage is structured according to the benchmarks applied to, as well as the theoretical discussions around, VET. The topics covered all have a strong contemporary relevance and include education versus qualification, the American community college, the issue of localization versus globalization in governance, vocationalism in higher education, career guidance and career counselling, and apprenticeships in the U.S. This book supports the assertion of the relevance of career and technical education —both for the individual and the labour market. Scholars, policy makers and practitioners interested in issues of vocational education and training, technical education, and career education will find this collection of critical and reflective discussions very useful in any analysis of the features of VET approaches taken in America.

This book seeks to advance understandings of and approaches to supporting and sustaining working age adults’ learning across lengthening working lives and inevitable transitions they encounter and are required to negotiate. It is founded on the processes and findings of a three-phase practical inquiry into worklife learning and its implications for workplace and educations’ practice conducted in Australia over a three-year period commencing in 2019. Diverse perspectives and orientations were utilised in approaches to data analysis and renderings from the data, thereby opening up the analysis of these complex phenomena to different lines of interrogation, questions and analytical approaches. It elaborates more fully understandings about the processes of adults’ learning and development across their lifespan of adulthood referred to as working life, and what factors and contributions supported that learning. This book also attempts to reconcile a coherent view about development across the work lifespan, and how that can be supported by education provisions, workplaces, communities, and by the adults themselves.

This book advances understandings about and practices for effectively integrating practice-based (e.g. workplace) experiences in higher education programs. This issue is becoming of increasing salient because higher education programs globally are increasingly focussing on preparing students for specific occupations. Such imperatives are reflected in the cooperative education movement in North America, the foundation degree programs of the United Kingdom, the work integrated learning approach within Australian higher education and initiatives in a range of other countries. There are clear and growing expectations that graduates from such should be able to move smoothly into being effective in their occupational practice. These expectations rise from the imperatives and interest of government, employers, community and students themselves. The book achieves a number of important goals. Firstly, it identifies and delineates the educational worth of students and engagement in practice-based experiences and their integration within their programs of study. Secondly, it advances conceptions of the integration of such experiences that is essential to inform how these programs might be enacted. Thirdly, drawing on the findings of two teaching fellowships, it proposed bases and propositions for how experiences in higher education programs might be organised and augmented to support effective learning. Fourthly pedagogic practices seen to be effective in maximising the learning from those practice experiences and integrating them within the curriculum are identified and discussed. Fifthly, a particular focus is given to students’ personal epistemologies and how these might be developed and directed towards supporting effective learning within practice settings and the integration of that learning in their university programs.

The Routledge International Handbook of Work-Integrated Learning, third edition, provides an extensive overview of work-integrated learning (WIL) for practitioners and educators, and contains practical insights on how to improve everyday application of it. WIL is a diverse and complex subject, with much debate around what constitutes good practice. In this Handbook, well-established international WIL, an extensive compilation of relevant literature related to its application, and examples of good practice. The third edition has been substantively revised and restructured, presenting 11 different models of WIL along with supporting literature and examples, and discusses developing and managing WIL within a qualification and across the institution. The Handbook also presents evidence-based benefits for stakeholders and explores topics such as stakeholder engagement, risk management, and the role of national and international associations. This Handbook presents discussions on defining the practice of WIL and explores the current literature on theoretical thinking of WIL, wellbeing, equity and inclusion, assessment, and quality indicators. Bringing together scholars and specialists from around the world, this Handbook is essential reading for practitioners, educators, researchers, higher education leaders, and policy makers.

Among the millions of asylum seekers who recently arrived in OECD countries, the majority are young people who may be able to take advantage of vocational education and training (VET) opportunities to help them enter skilled employment. This report provides advice to governments and other stakeholders who are seeking to use VET to promote integration, in particular for young humanitarian migrants. While the study draws particularly on policy and practice observed in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland, it also highlights other international practices.