Governance And Marketisation In Vocational And Continuing Education

Globalisation and individualisation, decreasing public means, political strategies of decentralisation, increasing participation of social groups and growing markets are discussed as main aspects of the current changes in vocational and continuing education. A comprehensive and integrating theoretical concept of analysis and understanding of these changes is widely missing, but necessary for a supra-national level of observation and comparison. The book includes a survey on this segment of education in several European countries, Australia and the USA. The folio of analysis and comparision is given by the concept of governance, which allows a theoretical and empirical approach to the field of vocational and adult education. The contributions line out governance and marketisation strategies in an international, national and sectoral perspective and give a frame of perception and interpretation on a general level.

A sustained examination of the politics and decision-making surrounding the origins, development and maintenance of Britain's main policy addressing international competitiveness. The Vocational Education and Training (VET) policy has not transformed Britain's economic competitiveness, as intended. This examination of VET sheds much needed light on factors of policy development and implementation which will benefit ministers, officials and the business community in developing future policies, balancing the demands of short-term imperatives and long-term objectives, and catering for internal workings and accountabilities amongst quangos and executive agencies. A textbook for postgraduate students in education as well as educational policy makers.

On the occasion of Mary Henkel’s seventieth birthday a group of her colleagues have come together to write this volume of articles as a tribute to her work and a token of gratitude for contributions to higher education research. The authors analyse these developments leading up to and possibly beyond the present in a tribute to Mary Henkel’s work using her birthday as an occasion to focus attention on her contributions to higher education research – something she would normally seek to avoid. This book is also a contribute to understanding how research in higher education has developed since its origins as Mary Henkel was one of its founding scholars together with other well-known researchers such as Maurice Kogan, Guy Neave, Ulrich Teichler, Martin Trow, Burton Clark, etc. The book will be useful to all researchers in areas related to higher education, namely governance, academic work, academic identities and quality.

Governance and Regulation in the Third Sector brings together scholars and experienced practitioners from different countries to investigate the relationship between regulation and relational governance for the third sector in a comparative context. Each chapter reviews recent regulatory changes in the country in question. To what extent are there significant convergences in these reforms and what are the implications for the third sector? Is there any evidence that the foundational architecture for a more collaborative relationship between the state and the third sector has been laid? Overall, the book reveals that the reality of the supposedly new collaborative relationships and the impacts of regulatory reform are quite different from what contemporary theories of public management would have us believe. Recognizing the gap between theory and reality, the chapters explore some of the outstanding challenges for regulatory reform for the third sector.

Focussing on European countries, this edited volume examines the variety of European VET governance and VET governance research. In particular, it provides insights into regional, local and decentralized governance at meso as well as micro level. As such, the edited volume sheds light on the hitherto far less explored dimensions of VET governance.

Covers issues of vocational education and training (VET) in light of social and economic changes, such as apprenticeship, information technology, structural adjustment, and shifting regional political and economic agendas. Reports on global VET concerns in a dozen countries around the world.

Are the educational systems in Europe becoming more similar or more different? This book deals with the issue of divergence and convergence in relation to systems, learning environments, and learners in vocational educational training (VET). 18 VET researchers from eight countries contribute to the examination of 'divergence and convergence' at three levels: At the national level this volume deals with the following questions: What are the consequences of the European policies that aim at converging the VET systems in Europe? What is the impact of globalization on the national systems? At the level of institutions the central issue concerns the relation between learning environments. What is the coherence between school-based education and learning in the work-place, and how can they connect? Finally at the third level of the learners and their identities the focus is on the role of vocational educational training in the formation of biographies and identities. The book thus covers the central issues on the agenda in relation to future vocational education.

Textbook

This book focuses at the margins of adult education, work and civil society. Rather than focusing on active participants and active participation, the objective is to scrutinize the whole adult population in terms of participation, and to pay special attention to those who are so easily left out of studies concerning adult education, learning at work or active participation in civil society. The aim of the book is to bring into the discussion the views of those who do not find attending adult education possible and who thus form a challenge for the promotion of active citizenship. In the collection of articles researchers from various disciplines and with cross-disciplinary interests in adult education and marginalisation meet and discuss with each other within and beyond their own disciplines.