Vocational Pathways Research Articles

Apprenticeships: building new vocational pathways to success

The focus on apprenticeships and technical education as a means of decreasing the UK's skills gap is offering an increasing number of different pathways into bioscience careers. A close relationship between education providers and industry is a key component of making these new routes a success. In this article, we explore the value of vocational training with Malcolm Skingle, Amy Mercer and Stephen Stewart, who highlight its benefits to companies and students alike.

The vocationalization policy in Zambias secondary education sector: A critical analysis

The purpose of this study was to critically examine the feasibility and implementation of the recently introduced vocational career pathway in Zambia’s secondary education system. The study involved a review of literature from both Zambia and other countries that have vocationalized their secondary education systems. The analysis has shown that the implementation of the vocational track in Zambia’s secondary schools is likely to be difficult. While this reform is meant to equip students with practical economic skills, evidence from the surveyed literature does not build a strong case for its implementation —partly due to its huge cost. The study ends by arguing for a possible reversal of the policy until such a time when the country has adequate resources to implement it. It further urges the government to consider pursuing a partial-vocationalization policy, whereby a few vocational subjects are taught within the existing academic track and made compulsory to all students. Key words: Secondary education, vocationalization policy, vocational skills, youth unemployment.

University After VET: The Challenges Faced by the Enrolled Nurse

In Australia, many Enrolled Nurses (EN) complete vocational education training (VET), undertake clinical work, and then progress into a tertiary, Registered Nurse (RN), program. Transition into university for ENs is typically into the second year of degree programs, with credit awarded for first year courses including basic bioscience subjects, predicated on recognition of prior learning. However, in educational literature ENs report that their prior study left them feeling unprepared for university and that VET, even coupled with work experience, may not adequately reinforce foundational science knowledge sufficient to support direct entry to second year biosciences. Moreover, bioscience subjects are internationally acknowledged as central to nursing students’ ‘science anxiety,’ and are ‘gate-keeper’ subjects in pre-registration programs, providing critical underpinning of theoretical knowledge for many other subjects. Indeed, a recent (2015) Australian government report on pathways into higher education highlighted concerns around modes of transition into university, citing significantly lower success rates for students from a low socio-economic status (LSES) background who frequently enter the tertiary sector via vocational pathways. This paper will explore, using a case study approach, the issues of transition from vocational training to the university programs across multiple Bachelor of Nursing (BN) programs (tertiary institutions) in both rural and metropolitan contexts from several Australian states. It will highlight challenges reported by these EN students that limit their capacity to engage in traditional tertiary programs including concomitant shift work requirements. ENs are typically female, mature age students with carer responsibilities, who study in isolation, online and via distance learning, further compounding issues of tertiary transition. The paper will describe a multi-institutional project designed by a multidisciplinary academic team, to enhance transition skills and build academic resilience for these ENs, to assist with their engagement and success in their BN studies.

Does the knowledge of a “non-return to work” predictive score influence vocational rehabilitation?

To measure if a decision-supportive tool based on the WORRK model, developed to predict non-return to work (nRTW) after orthopaedic trauma, improves the allocation to various vocational pathways according to patients’ “nRTW” risk, for use in clinical practice. Randomized-controlled trial using vocational inpatients after orthopaedic trauma ( n = 280). In the intervention group, the nRTW risk estimated using the WORRK tool was given to the clinician team before allocation of the vocational pathway, while in the control group it was not. Three pathways are available: simple (SP) and coaching (CP) (patients with low to intermediate nRTW risk, average of 5 week hospitalization and 17 hrs of therapy/week) and evaluation (EP) (high risk of nRTW, average of 3 week hospitalization and 14 hrs of therapy/week, less individual therapies, evaluation without training in the vocational workshop). The following indications were given: the higher the percentage of the WORRK score, the lower the predicted chance of RTW; a score < 50% indicates that probably the SP or CP is most adapted to the patient; a score of 50–69% indicates that the EP can/should be considered; a score > 70% indicates that probably the EP is most adapted to the patient. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients allocated to the EP. Four hundred and fifty patients were assessed for eligibility, 280 included, 139 randomized to the control group (mean age 42.3 years) and 141 to the intervention group (mean age 43.2 years). The two groups were similar regarding risk profile, age, education, native language, pain and quality of life. The patients in the intervention group were more often referred to the EP compared to the control group, having a 31% higher chance, but this difference was not statistically significant (risk ratio 1.31 [95% CI 0.70–2.46]). The NNT was 30. The effect of the WORRK tool was smaller than expected, possibly because: clinicians did not have confidence in the score provided, being given inadequate guidelines for when to refer patients to which pathway, clinicians avoid using the EP by fear of disadvantaging patients or because the EP is not adapted to our patients.

How Do Second-Generation Immigrant Students Access Higher Education? The Importance of Vocational Routes to Higher Education in Switzerland, France, and Germany

Abstract We analyse the access to different institutional pathways to higher education for second-generation students, focusing on youths that hold a higher-education entrance certificate. The alternative vocational pathway appears to compensate to some degree, compared to the traditional academic one, for North-African and Southern-European youths in France, those from Turkey in Germany, and to a lesser degree those from Portugal, Turkey, Ex-Yugoslavia, Albania/Kosovo in Switzerland. This is not the case in Switzerland for Western-European, Italian, and Spanish youths who indeed access higher education via the academic pathway more often than Swiss youths. Using youth panel and survey data, multinomial models are applied to analyse these pathway choices.

Comparing international curriculum systems: the international instructional systems study

ABSTRACTThis paper sets out the main findings of the International Instructional Systems Study (IISS), conducted by the UCL Institute of Education and funded by the Center on International Education Benchmarking (CIEB). The study examined the instructional systems and intended curricula of six ‘high performing’ countries and two US states. The study ultimately focused on nine specific aspects of those systems: the aims of the education system; how centralised or decentralised management of the instructional system is; principles and methods of accountability; what compulsory and optional subjects are included in the programmes of study; the degree to which curriculum is organised by discipline or integrated across disciplines; whether curriculum is common or differentiated; how twenty‐first century skills are embedded in the curriculum; the clarity and content of curriculum for secondary vocational pathways; and how assessments are created and what stakes they have and for whom.

Getting soldiers with brain injury back to work: the defence medical rehabilitation centre neurological vocational pathway

The Neuro-Rehabilitation Group at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) has developed an integrated vocational pathway to transition service personnel back into employment. This article describes how vocational rehabilitation at...

Pathways through secondary school in a comprehensive system: does parental education and school attended affect students’ choice?

As the Australian labour market restructured during the 1980s and 1990s, Year 12 retention rates more than doubled between 1983 and 1993 secondary schools diversified to include vocational education and training programs as alternative pathways through school. From a human capital perspective, the completion of vocational qualifications in school may represent strategic investments that enhance labour market outcomes. Using data provided by the Education and Training Directorate of the Australian Capital Territory, this paper examines the links between parents’ education and pathway through school. The results indicate that stratification within the comprehensive school system sorts students into different pathways according to parental education. After controlling for academic achievement in Year 9, students with lower-educated parents were more likely than those with university-educated parents to undertake a vocational education pathway. Furthermore, level of disadvantage of the school attended in Year 9 exacerbated rather than alleviated the effect of parental education.

The Infested Mind Jeffrey A. Lockwood

The Infested Mind Jeffrey A. Lockwood Hardcover: 240 pages Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 3rd edition (28 October 2013) Language: English ISBN-10: 0199930198 ISBN-13: 978-0199930197 $24.95 (hardcover); $16.99 (Kindle digital edition) ![Graphic][1] Imagine yourself in Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds with hundreds of creatures flying about, invading your personal space. Now imagine yourself as an entomologist investigating a grasshopper swarm of biblical proportions, spooking them, getting caught in an orthoptornado, with fleeing insects bonking into every part of your body and crawling into every gap and fold of your clothes. The real-life incident and subsequent panic attack that happened to author Jeffrey Lockwood was the impetus for a journey of self-discovery regarding fears and phobias involving arthropods, resulting in The Infested Mind . Lockwood has worn and still wears a diverse set of hats through an uncommon vocational pathway. He was an entomologist for 20 years, then switched gears for a joint position as a professor in Philosophy and the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing programs at University of Wyoming. His book is the result of this unusual interdisciplinary Venn diagram overlap of entomology, psychology, and philosophy, describing the nature of human reactions to arthropods, whether pleasure or aversion. Chapter topics include the psychological basis … rick.vetter{at}ucr.edu [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif

A Quantum Measurement Paradigm for Educational Predicates: Implications for validity in educational measurement

The outcomes of educational assessments undoubtedly have real implications for students, teachers, schools and education in the widest sense. Assessment results are, for example, used to award qualifications that determine future educational or vocational pathways of students. The results obtained by students in assessments are also used to gauge individual teacher quality, to hold schools to account for the standards achieved by their students, and to compare international education systems. Given the current high-stakes nature of educational assessment, it is imperative that the measurement practices involved have stable philosophical foundations. However, this article casts doubt on the theoretical underpinnings of contemporary educational measurement models. Aspects of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy and Bohr’s philosophy of quantum theory are used to argue that a quantum theoretical rather than a Newtonian model is appropriate for educational measurement, and the associated implications for the concept of validity are elucidated. Whilst it is acknowledged that the transition to a quantum theoretical framework would not lead to the demise of educational assessment, it is argued that, where practical, current high-stakes assessments should be reformed to become as ‘low-stakes’ as possible. This article also undermines some of the pro high-stakes testing rhetoric that has a tendency to afflict education.

Telling stories out of school: Experiencing the paramedic's oral traditions and role dissonance

Role dissonance is an uncomfortable experience for graduate paramedics, and some blame their university education for the problem. For paramedics the conflict is between identifying as a rescuer and acting largely as a care giver. With vocational pathways into so many uniformed professions closing down in preference for graduate entrants, young new professionals have to negotiate a rapidly changing work culture. Their older colleagues may be challenged and threatened by the new order. For paramedics the problem is compounded by the newness of its place in the tertiary landscape. Since 9/11 young people have been increasingly attracted to rescue roles. Yet in Australia there is increasing need and scope for health workers in remote and aging populations, a preference not immediately attractive to young people hoping for a more heroic future. While the near professions such as nursing have established their discourses around culture, role and pedagogy, paramedics is still trying to chisel its identity. The myths of paramedic glories past tend to add to the confusion of graduates. Due to a lack of empirical studies of non-clinical aspects of paramedicine, a bricolage methodology was used to refresh data from two discrete qualitative research projects conducted in 2011. Both projects had originally been interested in optimal paramedic preceptorship before and after graduation, but neither had explored the implicit theme which revealed the role of rescue experiences in paramedic culture and identity. The bricolage included a new search of literature from near professions and applied new theoretical frameworks to the analysis of the extant data, to demonstrate how storytelling as an element of paramedic collegiality perpetuates rescue stories that are then used to define paramedic work.

On the potential balance among compulsory education outcomes through econometric and multiobjective programming analysis

This paper sheds new light on the relationship between inputs and outputs in the framework of the educational production function. In particular, it is geared at gaining a better understanding of which factors may be affected in order to achieve an optimal educational output level. With this objective in mind, we analyze teacher-based assessments (actual marks) in three different subjects using a multiobjective schema. For much of the analysis we use data from a recent (2010) Survey – ESOC10, linked with the results from an educational assessment program conducted among 11 and 15 year-old students and with the administrative records on teacher-based scores. Following the statistical and econometric analysis of these data, they are used to build a multiobjective mixed integer model. A reference point approach is used to determine the profile of, potentially, the most “successful and balanced” students in terms of educational outcomes. This kind of methodology in multiobjective programming allows generating “very balanced” solutions in terms of the objective values (subjects). Finally, a sensitivity analysis is used to determine policies that can be carried out in order to improve the performance levels of primary and secondary education students. Particularly, policy makers should be more concerned with the need to promote some cultural habits – such as reading –, from both the students’ and parents’ side. Additionally, policy efforts should be focused on making the vocational pathways available to Spanish youth more appealing, with the aim of taking advantage of the particular skills of students not succeeding in the academic track.

Occupational functioning in early non-affective psychosis: the role of attributional biases, symptoms and executive functioning.

Aims. Occupational functioning is severely impaired in people with psychosis. Social cognition has recently been found to be a stronger predictor of functioning than neurocognition. This study is the first to investigate if externalizing attributional biases that are typically associated with psychosis play a role in the vocational pathways of people with early psychosis. Methods. A cross-sectional design was used. Fifty participants with early psychosis were recruited from a cohort of 144 participants of the Lambeth Early Onset randomized control trial at 18-month follow-up. Information on occupational functioning was obtained using case notes and interview. Severity of symptoms was assessed and participants completed measures on attributional style and executive functioning. Results. Although executive functioning and positive symptoms were associated with poor occupational functioning, an externalizing attributional style for failures and reduced engagement in occupational activities during the previous 18 months emerged as the only predictors of poor occupational functioning at 18-month follow-up. Conclusions. An externalizing attributional bias is associated with poor occupational functioning. Further research is needed to investigate the direction of this relationship and whether attributional biases mediate the impact of symptoms and cognitive impairment on functioning.

Life during wartime: Sexuality, recruitment and reality television

In 2010, Defence Force Recruiting (DFR) Navy Marketing entered into a media sponsorship package with the Australian version of the reality TV show So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD): Footage of the day aired on national television on SYTYCD and weekly ‘dancer bootcamp’ sessions training the dancers in Navy values featured on a dedicated and branded Navy section of the official SYTYCD website. This article analyses the Navy’s SYTYCD ‘integration opportunities’ to consider the role of reality television in the redefinition of the defence forces as a training and vocational pathway for young people. Underpinning such considerations is the conceptualization of the work of reality television through the prism of public and popular pedagogies. Taking sexuality as a focal point, the article will reflect on efforts to lift recruitment through an emphasis on the incorporation of diversity. Reading the work of Jasbir Puar against the Australian ‘archive’ of integration opportunities, this article contributes to queer critiques of homonormative and homonationalist tendencies in contemporary politics.

Progression to higher education: the voice of the apprentice

This paper represents a contribution to the Skills Commission’s call in 2009 for more research into the attitudes of apprentices towards advanced further education and higher education. Understanding of the perspective of apprentices has been argued to be important to informing any policy change aimed at increasing the low progression rate of apprentices to higher level learning. This paper outlines how the issue of apprenticeship progression, particularly progression to higher education, has latterly fitted with the aims of Lifelong Learning Networks, set up to facilitate progression for learners on vocational pathways and to create opportunities for vocational learners to build on their earlier learning. We present two pieces of research into apprentices’ attitudes towards progression to higher levels of learning and show how this forms a contribution to our understanding of the issues around progression from apprenticeships, within the wider context of Lifelong Learning Networks’ endeavour to facilitate greater vocational progression into higher education.

Successful placement or displacement in the transition from school to vocational training: the case of lower secondary school pupils

A system of qualification options has evolved that is complementary to company-based and school-based vocational training. Thus far, these alternatives have been largely disregarded by vocational education research. Yet with respect to the number of annual entries, those alternatives are currently nearly as significant as conventional vocational training. However, the question remains still unanswered if those alternatives are to be regarded as opportunities or rather as risk factors in respect of the vocational training or occupational integration of youth entering it. Based on a longitudinal study, the German Youth Institute's so-called ‘transition panel’ about the causes and effects of educational and vocational training-related pathways upon the occupational integration of young people leaving Hauptschule, the article aims at further investigation of the functions of those alternatives with regard to the integration into vocational training over the course of time.

The Individual Placement and Support approach to vocational rehabilitation for young people with first episode psychosis in the UK

Background: The onset of schizophrenia is associated with a pronounced decline in employment and educational attainment.Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of implementing the Individual Placement and Support approach (supported employment) adapted to include supported education within an Early Intervention Team for young people with a first episode of psychosis in the UK.Method: Demographic, clinical and vocational data were collected between November 2001 and July 2006 to evaluate the impact on service user vocational outcomes at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. Individual vocational pathways are reported for the follow-up periods and fidelity to the implementation of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) approach.Results: By 6 months, 69% of people were supported in open employment and mainstream education/training and this rose to 81% at 18 months. The open employment rate increased significantly from 13% at baseline to 48% at 18 months and this was maintained through to 24 months.Conclusion: This study suggests that the IPS approach combined with supported education was effective at enabling a significant proportion of young people with a first episode of psychosis in a UK Early Intervention Service to gain/retain open employment and mainstream education.

Chapter 5: Tertiary Short-Cycle Education in Bulgaria: In Search of Identity

This chapter traces the development of short-cycle higher education in Bulgaria. An emphasis is placed on (a) the evolution of nonuniversity short-cycle institutes and (b) the challenges of bridging the gap between secondary and higher education and creating links between vocational and academic learning pathways.

Imagined futures: why are vocational learners choosing not to progress to HE?

This paper is based on a small‐scale mixed‐method research project, which was located in south‐east England and was funded by the British Academy. The project, investigated the factors that affected young people’s decisions not to progress to higher education (HE) after following a Level 3 vocational pathway in upper secondary education. Set against the context of divergent and somewhat contradictory government policy initiatives, it draws on the concept of imagined futures as a way of considering students’ ‘decision‐making’ in their transition from further education to other locations. This paper explores how a group of young people completing their vocational courses in summer 2008 viewed – or imagined – their futures. Contrary to policy discourses, vocational pathways did not necessarily offer straightforward progression to HE. Respondents’ ‘imagined futures’ did not lack agency, but HE was not an immediate part of them.

Degrees of separation? Early women principals in New Zealand state schools 1876–1926

As a British colony, New Zealand had early to grapple with how best to implement a state system of schooling. Inspectors of primary schools and governing boards of secondary schools were responsible for appointing school principals. This paper examines the ways in which they dealt with new situations: in the case of the primary schools where there were few suitable male applicants and in the case of the secondary schools where they were responsible for appointing the very first principals of girls’ schools. It argues that within a small colony with emerging bureaucratic structures, lone officials and autonomous governing boards were able to engage in flexible decision making when making principal appointments to enable schools to open and remain open. Central to the appointment of women as early principals was the importance of their own social networks and personal connections. It was in this way that the non‐traditional school principal began to emerge. She was female, either Māori or European, either non‐graduate or graduate, either single, married or widowed, and sometimes from working‐class origins. This paper highlights the appointments of several of the first women principals in New Zealand across the three state school sectors – Native Schools, primary schools and secondary schools. These were women who carved out new professional identities for themselves, and modelled alternative vocational pathways for the next generation of New Zealand women.