From a societal perspective, vocational education and training must enable young adults to meet the challenges of the labour market in a globalized world, reduce the mismatch of supply and demand of qualifications (e.g. youth unemployment leading to disadvantages for individuals, society and national economies) and improve social cohesion. From an…

Purpose: Development Agents (DAs) are employed by agricultural departments to provide capacity development for farmers. In this contribution, the adjustment of a competence profile originally developed for the Province of Esfahan [Karbasioun, M., M. Mulder, and H. J. A. Biemans. 2007. "Towards a Job Competency Profile for Agricultural…

Purpose: This study explores the applicability and transferability of tools developed for the realization of comparability and transparency of qualifications across Europe. It relates to the implementation of the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) in the automotive…

The difficulties experienced by vocational education and training (VET) teachers in delivering the generic employability skills embedded in industry training packages are considered in this paper. It suggests that the interpretation of generic skills should not be left to trainers and that a national strategy that is clear concise, comprehensive…

The Nigeria's oil industry has been criticized for some time now for its inability to render adequate services to the general public. This criticism is predicated on the fact that the standards of productivity in their services are low and that their facilities (i.e. the refineries) are not working up to capacity. This is evident in their…

The Chinese economy is now a major driver of growth in the world economy. As a consequence, significant reforms were introduced which impacted on its educational systems. China is facing unprecedented pressure to produce skilled individuals to meet the demands of this rapid growth. China is in the unique position of operating in a dual system,…

The procedures currently used in the 12 European Community (EC) member countries for certifying the employment qualifications of graduates of full-time vocational education and training programs and/or apprenticeship programs were compared. The comparison, which was based on information obtained from 12 national studies of EC members' education…

This article discusses advantages and disadvantages of competency-based education and training (CBET), with emphasis on its application to vocational and higher education in Australia. Argues that, although CBET model is suitable for most vocational programs, the very nature of higher education prohibits its use at colleges and universities. (MDM)

Australian research into competency-based training and assessment is very thin and theoretical discussion is often superficial. One curious feature in the Australian debate is the belief by many that competency-based training is possible without competency-based assessment. Definitions are being debated. In a longitudinal study, researchers have…

A major initiative in Australia is a general and pervasive obsession with competency-based training and assessment. There is a real danger that the selling of competency-based training (CBT) and competency-based assessment (CBA) is greater than what it can offer. One criticism focuses on CBT, the other on CBA, although in most instances where CBT…

A major review of vocational education and training has occurred across the United Kingdom since 1986. Employment requirements are being identified in the form of occupational standards that provide the foundation for the new system of vocational qualifications, National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). Standards describe what people need to be…

The introduction of training packages has focused attention on the quality of assessment in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector on the quality of assessment. For the process of mutual recognition under the Australian Recognition Framework (ARF) to work effectively, there needs to be confidence in assessment decisions made…

This collection of 12 essays focuses on issues surrounding the assessment of competence in higher education, providing examples to illustrate the competence approach in practice in the United Kingdom. They include: (1) "The Assessment of Competence in Higher Education" (Anne Edwards and Peter Knight); (2) "National Vocational…

The French employers federation (MEDEF) has taken the initiative to develop a joint inter-sectoral mechanism for accreditation of occupational competences. The approach analyzes occupations at a more abstract level than the tasks performed within a specific job to facilitate comparison of different occupations from different sectors and allow…