Vocational education and training : a review of World Bank investment

In the past ten years the most striking achievement of vocational education and training (VET) has been the development of national training systems from nonformal training centres and post secondary technical education institutions. This has happened largely in middle income countries. Investments in low income countries, especially those in Sub Saharan Africa, have been less successful. In addition implementation weakness and stagnating economies have made it difficult to set up any type of training. Investment in national training programs has just begun in these poorer countries, and success is uncertain because of continuing economic constraints. These patterns suggest that the level of economic development and the consequent size and dynamism of industrial employment have a powerful influence on the outcome of investments in vocational education and training. In small low income countries, recent Bank experience suggests that resources be concentrated in nonformal training centres, training quality, development of management capacity in training institutions, and aggressive marketing of training opportunities and services.Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Gender and Education,Curriculum&Instruction,ICT Policy and Strategies

Effective Pre-school and Primary Education 3-11 Project (EPPE 3-11): Final Report from the Primary Phase: Pre-school, School and Family Influences on children's development during Key Stage 2 (7-11)

The Effective Pre-school and Primary Education 3-11 project (EPPE 3-11) has studied pre-school and primary school experiences for a national sample of approximately 2,800 children in England between the ages of 3 and 11 years. This Research Brief summarises the key findings up to the end of primary school. It focuses on the relationships between child, family, home, pre-school and primary school characteristics and pupils\u27 subsequent cognitive (Reading/English and Mathematics) and social/behavioural outcomes (\u27Self-regulation\u27, \u27Pro-social\u27 behaviour, \u27Hyperacti vity\u27 and \u27Anti-social\u27 behaviour) at ages 10 and 11 in Years 5 and 6 of primary school. It also reports on associations between pupils\u27 outcomes and \u27other\u27 factors such as pupils\u27 self-perceptions and their views of primary school at age 10, pupil mobility, out of school hours learning and season of birth. In addition, it explores the school/classroom practices and processes associated with pupil outcomes for a sub-group of pupils in 125 Year 5 classes. These findings update and extend earlier analyses of pupils\u27 outcomes in pre-school and Key Stage 1 (see Sylva et al., 2004) and form the end point of the primary school phase of the research

The Tangled Web: Unraveling the Principle of Common Goals in Collaborations

This article addresses a “goals paradox” that suggests that both congruence and diversity in organizations’ goals influence success in collaboration. Using extensive empirical data, we develop a framework that portrays goals as an entangled, dynamic, and ambiguously hierarchical web of variously perceived, higher- and lower-level goals that can be characterized across six dimensions: level, origin, authenticity, relevance, content, and overtness. We then explore the paradox in terms of the framework and so propose a much elaborated theoretical understanding of it. This provides theoretical and practical understanding relevant to management and governance in and of collaboration