83 research outputs found
European skills framework? - but what are skills? Anglo-Saxon versus German concepts
With the proposed introduction of a common framework for comparing qualifications within the European Union (EU), as a result of the Lisbon agreement of 2000, the question of commonly agreed transnational concepts of skills and qualifications is has become a pressing political and practical issue. The paper argues that there are grounds for doubting that there is a ready translation of the English terms 'skill'and 'qualification' in a way that avoids problems of comparing and calibrating German and English vocational qualifications. Reasons for this difficulty are explored, the most important of which relate to: a) the conceptual structure of skill and its cognates in the two languages; b) the differing socio-political role of qualifications; c) different industrial structures and labour processes; d) differences in institutions regulating vocational education and training (VET). These problems are discussed in relation to examples of similar industries and occupations and apparently similar levels of qualification in England and Germany
Vocational teachers and workplace learning: integrative, complementary and implicit accounts of boundary crossing
Where young peopleâs upper-secondary education spans work and institutional domains, questions arise about learning across both spheres and its guidance. Theoretical accounts of âboundary crossingâ have explored how vocational teachers can integrate learning across domains by drawing on extended concepts and theoretical knowledge to solve workplace problems; whilst empirical accounts have validated the role of vocational educators by describing the workplace and schools as equally valid, complementary spheres. Different understandings, described here as âintegrativeâ, âcomplementaryâ and âimplicitâ, appear to reflect different national patterns of vocational education. The paper reports a qualitative study conducted around two case studies, located in Germany and England, of the way vocational teachersâ understandings of facilitating learning across domains are constructed. Vocational teachers working in Germanyâs âdual trainingâ claimed to provide advanced knowledge that they compared to practical work skills, reflecting âimplicitâ or âcomplementaryâ approaches to learning across domains. Teachers in England, where workplace learning elements are more unevenly developed and lack institutional foundations, nevertheless described colleges and workplaces as distinctive, little-connected spheres. These differences suggest that teachersâ approaches are less shaped by the potential or necessity for âintegrativeâ approaches than by the way different systems enable or constrain their conceptualisation of âpossible futuresâ.N/
ââWhy me, why now?â Using clinical immunology and epidemiology to explain who gets nontuberculous mycobacterial infection
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