Vocational Education Pedagogy and the situated practices of teaching core skills

This chapter explores cutting-edge educational research in the field of generic core skills and the pedagogic practices of teaching work-based vocational education to young people. It argues for a complete transformation on how we conceptualize and teach generic skills. The reader is invited to rethink the fundamental assumptions that underpin the notion of transferable skills, the division created between theory and practice and the role played by outcome-based competency standards in education. The argument is made for conceptualizing vocational education as a material, discursive and normative set of practices that rely heavily upon context-dependent learning environments. Best-practice examples of teaching core skills are identified from a range of organizations in the UK. Finally, the debate on generic skills is set within a broader international context. The audience to benefit most from this discussion includes researchers in work-based learning; national and institutional policy makers in post-compulsory education; teachers of vocational education; human resources development managers and further and higher education teachers.

[2]  I. Grugulis,et al.  The Skills That Matter , 2004 .

[3]  L. Clarke,et al.  A European skills framework?—but what are skills? Anglo‐Saxon versus German concepts , 2006 .

[4]  Geoff Hayward *,et al.  From core skills to key skills: fast forward or back to the future? , 2004 .

[5]  D. Raffe.  The concept of transition system , 2008 .

[6]  Alison Taylor,et al.  Expansive learning through high school apprenticeship: opportunities and limits , 2007 .

[7]  R. Simmons.  Entry to employment: discourses of inclusion and employability in work‐based learning for young people , 2009 .

[8]  Matthew Walker,et al.  Evaluation of Skills for Work pilot courses : final report , 2008 .

[9]  Andy Green,et al.  Core Skills, Key Skills and General Culture: In Search of the Common Foundation in Vocational Education , 1998 .

[10]  N. Boreham.  A Theory of Collective Competence: Challenging The Neo-Liberal Individualisation of Performance at Work , 2004 .

[11]  A. Kraak.  Incoherence in the South African labour market for intermediate skills , 2008 .

[12]  R. Canning.  The failure of competence-based qualifications: An analysis of work-based vocational education policy in Scotland , 1998 .

[13]  R. Canning.  A History of Core Skills Policy Development in Scotland , 2007, Scottish Educational Review.

[14]  Alan Felstead,et al.  Estimating the determinants of supply of computing, problem‐solving, communication, social, and teamworking skills , 2001 .

[15]  D. Raffe.  'Simplicity Itself': The creation of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework , 2003 .

[16]  R. Canning.  Reconceptualising core skills , 2007 .