This study explored the extent to which undergraduates demonstrate capabilities associated with professional identity (PI), an individual's connection with the ideology of professional practice and a critical element of graduate employability. It gathered quantitative and qualitative data from 212 Australian business undergraduates and their…

A competence-oriented approach has recently emerged in higher education and thus far, not much attention has been paid to how "competence" itself is understood in education. The purpose of this study was to examine how graduating physiotherapy students perceive their competence at the end of their studies. The data comprised interviews…

The aim of this article is to investigate how the formal competence development activities provided by the Production Leap, a workplace development programme (WPDP), were interwoven with everyday work activities and to identify the conditions that enabled learning and employee-driven innovation that contributed to production improvement, in small…

It was investigated how domain-specific knowledge, fluid intelligence, vocational interest and work-related self-efficacy predicted domain-specific problem-solving performance in the field of office work. The participants included 100 German VET (vocational education and training) students nearing the end of a 3-year apprenticeship program as an…

This article discusses the development of vocational competence through economic vocational educational training (VET) from a theoretical and psychometric perspective. Most assessment and competence models tend to adopt a state perspective toward assessments of competence and carve out different structures of competence for diverse vocational…

In our continuously changing society, a need for updating one's skills and knowledge puts pressure on safeguarding the labour market position of low-qualified employees. However, prior research and official statistics show that employees with a lower level of education tend to participate less in training than highly-educated individuals. This…

In the "dual" system of vocational training, working in company represents the major part of training. At the workplace, apprentices are expected to acquire the typical skills of their profession but, at the same time, to contribute to the production of the company. For this reason apprentices are expected to carry out activities on…

Today, organizations are increasingly implementing assessment tools such as Personal Development Plans. Although the true power of the tool lies in supporting the employee's continuing professional development, organizations implement the tool for various different purposes, professional development purposes on the one hand and promotion/salary…

When trainers or teachers in the field of initial vocational education explain abstract notions, refer to technical objects or emphasize the specificities of technical skills, they often call forth concepts and practices different from those that are directly salient in the training situations in which they engage. The aim of this paper is to…

Data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy were examined to determine if non-native-born adults in the US differ from their native-born counterparts in (1) participation in work-related training or education, and (2) perceptions that specific skills limit their job opportunities. Results indicated that non-native-born persons were…

In this continuously changing contemporary economy, companies have to be able to anticipate technological innovations and to compete with other companies worldwide. This need makes important a company's ability to evolve through its employees' learning and through continuous development. Securing and retaining skilled employees plays an important…

The aim of this paper, based on a comparative viewpoint from an European outsider perspective, is to present a brief historical reconstruction of the pedagogical and educational political discussion about education for the industrial sector in America. The discussion was triggered by the emerging idea that one of the principal tasks of education…

Vocational training and skills are playing an increasingly important role in the developed economies. However, both the vocational education structure and the underlying philosophy and culture of education and training vary from country to country. What is clear, though, is that employers play a crucial role in all cases; this paper explores the…

This paper examines the notion of "competence" in the VET systems of France and England. While both countries have developed "competence-based" approaches, underlying the similar terminology are distinct meanings, rooted in the countries' institutional structures and labour processes. A key distinction is identified between a…