Ireland

This report will focuses on the current innovations and the future development of the practices and approaches to the assessment of learning in the area of work-based Vocational Education & Training in Ireland. The report is written from the perspective of the Irish Partner (Dublin City University) of the Leonardo da Vinci QualPraxis Research Project. In Ireland Vocational Education and Training (VET) exists mainly in the further education sector and this report will focus on this area

Uneven encounters and paradoxical rights: embodiment and difference in sexual orientation rights and activism

My thesis takes the intersection of sexual orientation and human rights and the increased tendency towards the expression of the concerns of sexual minorities in rights based terminology in international law as a Deleuzian ‘problem’ to be explored and unpicked. Sexual orientation is a singular expression of a complex multifaceted virtuality, yet the term -­‐ understood as a static and relatively unchanging denotation of a particular identity and mode of action -­‐ holds increasing purchase as a human rights issue. I explore the way in which rights shape the expression of sexuality within institutional and activist practices in international arenas and suggest that the complex and contested encounter between sexuality and human rights in international law exposes the problems, limits and temporality of both. By taking seriously the problems inherent to the encounters between sexuality and rights, as they are expressed in different material circumstances, we can explore sexuality as a mutliplicitous and changing flux and rights as a dual sided paradox, acting simultaneously machines of territorialisation and machines of deteritorialisation. Thus, I suggest that in their engagement with questions of 'sexual orientation', rights act as both modes of control, restriction and exclusion and as modes of communication and connection, challenge and escape, depending upon the particular circumstances within which they are expressed. As such, I attempt to engage with the embeddedness of ‘sexuality’ within particular material contexts and through this engagement, explore different potentialities that are implicated within divergent enactments of rights and sexuality in order to critique a mode of action that remains fixed upon abstract discussion of ossified ‘sexualities’ and transcendental rights. Furthermore, my aim is to approach the encounter not only as a means of critique but also as a moment of uncertainty and a site of productive engagement, vitality and becoming. Thus, the key question to be asked of the encounter between sexual orientation and rights is not one of which rights have been violated or of how a perceived violation can be expressed in relation to an already conceived and fixed discourse of rights, but instead, which material circumstances have facilitated the expression of injustice suffered by a sexual minority as a rights violation and in expressing the violation in this way, which possibilities, problematics and discourses are activated, and which others are ignored

THE COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL OF NEW DAIRY PRODUCTS FROM MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY

Membrane filtration technologies are capable of creating entirely new, more functional food products. In this regard, potential new dairy products include high-protein, low-lactose fluid milk, high-protein, low-lactose ice cream, and non-far yogurt made with fewer stabilizers. An initial survey of membrane manufacturing companies determined the added cost to produce such functional food products to be two to six percent of the existing retail price for similar standard dairy products. A subsequent survey of milk processors found that the most likely adopters of such membrane technologies were yogurt manufacturers.Agribusiness,

Innovative instruments for the accreditation of vocational learning outcomes: recognition and validation of prior learning in vocationally related education in Ireland

This paper seeks to outline the key aspects of the validation and recognition of prior learning in the vocational education sector in Ireland In line with the current EU CREDIVOC project special attention will be paid to the common sector area, in this case engineering. McCarthy et al (2001) suggest that ‘VET systems can only be adequately understood with reference to the dynamic set of interrelationships between the education and training systems, the industrial relations system, the organizational structure of industry, and the class and status relations of the wider society as reflected in its political system’ (p. 425). It is important to observe that the context of any situation is relevant, not more so than in Ireland due to the rapid economic growth the country has experienced in the last ten to fifteen years. With Europe’s drive to consolidate its policies within the economic sectors through its members towards a knowledge economy (Brinkley & Lee 2006) the streamlining and harmonization of qualifications systems is key to this success. To help with this success it is firstly important to map current trends throughout Europe in vocational sectors

Designing and Testing of a Threshing Cone

During the threshing process 60 to 80 percent of the grain is now separated from the straw in the thresh­ing cylinder. If the efficiency of separa­tion in the cylinder could be increased, sufficiently, the straw rack of a com­bine could be eliminated. Research de­scribed in this paper was conducted to investigate the efficiency of separa­tion of a new threshing device. A threshing cone with the material moving axially from the small end of the cone to the large end, provides a device for increasing the time that the material is subjected to threshing and separating forces

Multiple approaches to reflection as a key component of assessment

This case study focuses on the learning outcomes of two separate modules within the programme: Supervised Work-Based Practice (SWBP) and Microteaching. Using ‘constructive alignment’ (Biggs, 1996), the assessors are interested in the students not only having an understanding of the skills and knowledge required as a teacher/trainer but also the ‘higher order elements’ leading to a deep understanding of themselves and the environment they are working in. The emphasis on ‘reflection’ is crucial to the assessment as the School aims to produce students who are not only knowledgeable but competent

Study on street children in four selected towns of Ethiopia

The child is the most precious asset and the focal point of development for any country. However, unless children are brought up in a stimulating and conducive environment getting the best possible care and protection, their physical, mental, emotional and social development is susceptible to permanent damage. Ethiopia, being one of the least developed countries of the world due to interrelated and complex socio-economic factors including man-made and natural calamities, a large portion of our population - especially children - are victimized by social evils like famine, disease, poverty, mass displacement, lack of education and family instability. Owing to the fact that children are the most vulnerable group among the whole society and also because they constitute half of the population it is evident that a considerable number of Ethiopian children are living under difficult circumstances. Therefore, as in a number of other third world countries there are many poor, displaced, unaccompanied and orphaned children in our country. A considerable proportion of these children work on the street with some even totally living on the street without any adult care and protection. These children are forced to the streets in their tight for survival. They supplement their parents meagre income or support themselves with the small incomes they earn doing menial jobs. In doing this, street children face the danger of getting into accidents and violence, they get exploited and abused, many are forced to drop out of school or never get the chance to be enroled at all and some drift into begging or petty crime. This study is undertaken mainly for updating the findings of previous studies, monitoring changing trends, examining new facts of the problem and getting a better understanding of the phenomenon in the country by covering at least some of the major centres where the problem is acute. Thus, the outcome of this research can be useful in the formation of the social welfare programme of the country. Finally, in recognition of the urgency of the problem and the limited resources available, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs expresses appreciation to all agencies engaged in the rehabilitation of street children and prevention of the problem. The Ministry also calls for more co-operation and support between concerned governmental and non-governmental organizations in their efforts for improving the situation of street children and in curbing the overwhelming nature of the problem