Accreditation and Assessment in Vocational Education and Training

Author(s):  
Gordon Stanley

Vocational education and training has emerged from traditional industry and technical training into a vigorous post-compulsory education sector focused on satisfying the ever-changing demands of today’s employers. This chapter considers issues around the accreditation and regulation of providers and the assessment and certification of outcomes. Quality and comparability of outcomes has been a common concern for regulatory regimes. The front-end emphasis of training assessors and the requirement for workplace assessment contexts is designed to align with employer needs. However there are legitimate concerns about the consistency of judgments. Competency based assessment (CBA) has been the dominant assessment model and contrasts with the traditional assessment approach in general education. However the more recent standards-referenced assessment movement in the latter sector suggests ways in which assessment approaches are converging. Employability and 21st century skills reinforce the interest in developing generic skills in all sectors of education.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-291
Author(s):  
Teressa Schmidt

Internationally, vocational education and training (VET) is intended to fulfil important economic and social objectives. There is, however, a concerning discourse relating to funding, esteem, reputation and quality, and questions have been raised about whether social mobility aspirations of the sector’s students are achieved or achievable. This paper argues that rather than resulting from deficiency or fault of VET, these issues are, instead, manifestations of the sector’s structural oppression. Further, unless this oppression is recognised and addressed as an underlying cause, VET’s troubles will remain. While acknowledging the claim may be contentious, the paper applies Freirean philosophy and contemporary critical social theory to examine the case of Australian VET, identifying the oppressive structures and policies which have progressively rendered the sector powerless and lacking the autonomy needed to enact positive and necessary change. It expounds upon Australian VET’s vulnerability to neoliberal educational reform along with the impact of competency based education and training (CBE/T), its reductionist curriculum, and the de-professionalisation of VET, its teachers and the vocations it serves, before proposing that any further reforms must be led from within the sector itself. While the paper focuses on Australian VET, its examination will likely hold meaning elsewhere.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-336
Author(s):  
Nadia Lamamra ◽  
Roberta Besozzi

Abstract In Switzerland, dual vocational education and training, which is practice- and employment-oriented, is the most frequently chosen path after compulsory education. The analysis of the training provided in the company by the people in charge of the apprentices questions the influences of the world of work on educational practices. The analysis of 80 semi-directive interviews highlights the tension between production and training, the different representations of apprentices, and the impact of these two elements on training practices.


Author(s):  
Leesa Wheelahan

This article critiques models of competency-based training in vocational education and training in Anglophone countries and contrasts it to ‘kompetenz’ in Germanic countries. It identifies six key problems with Competency-Based Training (CBT): first, CBT is tied to specific ensembles of workplace roles and requirements; second, the outcomes of learning are tied to descriptions of work as it currently exists; third, CBT does not provide adequate access to underpinning knowledge; fourth, CBT is based on the simplistic and behaviourist notion that processes of learning are identical with the skills that are to be learnt; fifth, the credibility of a qualification is based on trust, not what it says a person can do; and sixth, CBT is based on a notion of the human actor as the supervised worker. The article argues generic skills are not the alternative, and it uses a ‘modified’ version of the capabilities approach as the conceptual basis for qualifications.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shweta Bahl ◽  
Vasavi Bhatt ◽  
Ajay Sharma

PurposeIn the process of school-to-work transition, the role of general education and vocational education and training (VET) remains quite central. Based on the human capital theory, we estimate whether investment in VET brings additional returns for workers across the age cohorts.Design/methodology/approachThe focus of our study being the labour market in India, the data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2018–19, conducted by the National Statistical Office, has been used for analysis. We have applied the ordinary least square method with sample selection correction, the quasi-experimental technique of propensity score matching and heteroskedasticity based instrumental variable approach to estimate the returns with respect to no VET, formal VET and informal VET.FindingsOur study shows that workers with formal VET earn higher wages than workers with no VET or informal VET. The study finds that workers with informal VET do not earn higher wages than workers with no VET. Moreover, from the age cohort analysis, we have deduced that wage advantage of workers with formal VET persists across all age cohorts and, in fact, accentuates with an increase in age.Originality/valueWe have estimated that VET being complemented with basic general education fetches higher returns in the labour market, especially when provided through formal channels. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, in the case of developing countries where informal VET is widely provided, this is one of the first studies that captures the return to informal VET. Lastly, complementing the existing studies on the developed countries, we have estimated the returns to VET over the life cycle of the workers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basanti Roshan Pradhan Shrestha

The purpose of this study is to describe the challenges facing vocational education and training graduates to the job market. Many studies and research has been done to identify the causes of the problem that vocational graduates are facing after they employed in the job market. But still problems are existing in job market as vocational graduates are facing difficulties to transfer their learning. Hence, it challenges the vocational Education and training system. Therefore, this study also focused on the possible interventions to solve the existing problems that vocational graduates and job markets have been facing. The gap and weak linkage between vocational training providers and job market challenges curriculum design and performance in job. So, Competency based training based curriculum design improve the quality of instruction through experienced instructors and training providers are the possible intervention to fill the gap.Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 3, Issue-3: 141-145


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