Skill Formation

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National Vocational Qualifications in the United Kingdom: a research based critique

YesThis article evaluates the British system of NVQs, focusing on their capacity to increase skill levels. It reviews the way NVQs were designed and argues that they are ill-equipped to encourage knowledge and skills, partly because they simply replicate the weaknesses which currently exist in the labour market and partly because of the focus on observed workplace behaviours. NVQs were intended to be 'employer-led' and the assumptions underpinning their design are unitarist. In contrast, the German apprenticeship system is developed and implemented by pluralist consortia and results in qualifications that are far better equipped to support skill levels

'I don't know where they learn them': skills in film and television

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'Real' managers don't do NVQs: a review of the new management 'standards'

In 1997 the Management Charter Initiative (MCI) officially launched the new Management NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications), benchmarks which attempted to describe the work performed by British managers. This article is a review of those qualifications. It remembers some of the main problems associated with the original Management NVQs and, drawing on some of the best theoretical and empirical accounts of managerial work, argues that the new qualifications have failed to live up to the MCI¿s original promise, to assist the development and training of managers

Whatever Happened to Skill?

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The future of professional work? The rise of the `network form¿ and the decline of discretion

This article explores the implications of `networked¿ and `flexible¿ organisations for the work and skills of professionals. Drawing on material from four different case studies it reviews work that is out-sourced (IT professionals and housing benefit caseworkers), work done by teachers contracted to a temporary employment agency and work done through an inter-firm network (chemical production workers). In each of these cases work that was out-sourced was managed very differently to that which was undertaken in-house, with managerial monitoring replacing and reducing employees¿ discretion. New staff in these networks had fewer skills when hired and were given access to a narrower range of skills than their predecessors. By contrast, the production staff employed on permanent contracts in the inter-firm network were given (and took) significant amounts of responsibility, with positive results for both their skills and the work processes. Despite these results, out-sourcing and sub-contracting are a far more common means of securing flexibility than organisational collaboration and the implications of this for skills is considered

Skill, training and human resource development.

NoTaking a critical perspective, Skill, Training and Human Resource Development focuses on the way people are developed at work; the skills that are encouraged, the way they are controlled and the implications they have for people. It draws on a wide range of research and covers an array of organizational practices. Preface Acknowledgements Human Resource Development Skills at Work International Comparisons: Skills and Employment Systems Vocational Education and Training in Britain New Skills for Old? The Changing Nature of Skill Emotions and Aesthetics for Work and Labour: The Pleasures and Pains of the Changing Nature of Work Managing Culture Management and Leadership Development Knowledge Work and Knowledgeable Workers Developments and Developing in the New Economy References Inde

Introduction

The University of Manchester, England hosted the fourth Work, Employment and Society Conference, on 1¿3 September 2004. Previous WES conferences were held in Nottingham in 2001, Cambridge in 1998, and Canterbury in 1994. Two even earlier stages in the process of institutionalization were the first British Sociological Association conference on the theme of Work in 1984, and the launch of the Work, Employment and Society journal itself in 1987. Although the conference is a separately organized event, it has become de facto the conference of the WES journal

The Institution That Wasn¿t: The birth, short life, and death of the British National Health Service University

This report presents a detailed account of a major educational initiative in the British health service, the organisation with the largest workforce in Europe. The initiative was to set up a `university for the National Health Service¿, an aspiration that gave birth to `NHSU¿. Work began in 2001, but the project ended abruptly in 2005. This paper is based on the analysis of a series of in-depth interviews with senior managerial staff and a review of policy documents. Our analysis explores both the political and the organisational aspects of NHSU. We conclude that two aspects of the initiative are key to understanding its demise: its politically-led nature and its challenge to the idea of a `university¿. Finally, we attempt to draw conclusions from the experience of NHSU to inform other state-sponsored education and training interventions