Participation in further education is a central success factor for economic growth and societal as well as individual development. This is especially true today because in most industrialized ...countries, labor markets and work processes are changing rapidly. Data on further education, however, show that not everybody participates and that different social groups participate to different degrees. Activities in continuous vocational education and training (CVET) are mainly differentiated as formal, non-formal and informal CVET, whereby further differences between offers of non-formal and informal CVET are seldom elaborated. Furthermore, reasons for participation or non-participation are often neglected. In this study, the authors therefore analyze and compare predictors for participation in both forms of CVET, namely, non-formal and informal. To learn more about the reasons for participation, the authors focus on the individual perspective of employees (invidual factors, job-related factors, and learning biography) and additionally integrate institutional characteristics (workplace and company-based characteristics). The results mainly show that non-formal CVET is still strongly influenced by institutional settings. In the case of informal CVET, on the other hand, the learning biography plays a central role. (Orig.).
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the education process, including the education and vocational training sector, where readiness to switch to remote learning was not common and obvious. In this ...exceptional situation, the need to digitize both didactic and organizational processes in institutions of continuing education and vocational training and the need to ensure the quality of these processes has become even more evident. The article presents a proposal to support institutions in digitization processes, developed as part of an international cooperation project of institutions from Polish, Greece, Cyprus and Italy: Quality for digital education readiness in VET (Q4EDU). The proposed methodology for assessing the readiness of education and vocational training institutions to digitize their activities is a comprehensive solution, offering, among other things, the possibility of monitoring and developing the level of digitization of institutions through the use of an IT tool based on the European DigCompOrg framework and the opportunity to acquire and confirm the competences of a digital education expert.
Along with technological progress, vocational education and training (VET) is consistently changing. Workforce disruption has serious consequences for workers and international economies, often ...requiring adults to transition into different occupations or to upskill to maintain employment. We review recent literature covering VET trends, theoretical considerations for the 21st century, and present an approach to workforce training to help workers not only learn necessary skills but also become adaptable to constant change. We suggest a functional contextualist approach to mastery learning achieves this aim. Specifically, we offer suggestions for pedagogy that not only develop skills but also encourage higher order thinking. Within a novice to expert continuum, we suggest deliberate practice, mental simulation, and reflective meaning making as methods to achieve efficiency and transfer-learning outcomes relevant to a changing workforce. This approach recognizes that learning is context bound and should promote broader human capabilities that support both employability and the continuing development of life literacies.
Purpose: This paper offers relevant insights from the activity of the network of Centres d’Innovació i Formació Ocupacional (CIFO), analyzing the development of innovation in a continuing education ...and training (CVET) programme for unemployed, in Catalonia (Spain). Design/methodology: This is a qualitative study, carried out using the communicative methodology approach and co-constructing knowledge with the heads of the centers. The data was collected through the realization of eight interviews with the heads of seven of the eight CIFO that compose the CIFO network in Catalonia plus the Coordinator of the network, who had been head of the other CIFO, and it consisted in identifying the barriers to innovation and the elements that help to overcome them within different dimensions of this programme, through the exclusionary and transfomative dimensions, specific to the communicative methodology. Findings: Innovation at the CIFO has three main strands where we have identified many opportunities for the CIFO: methodological, pedagogical and technological. The methodological has to do with the actions derived from the ISO 9001 certification, which gives the centres the mission of continuous improvement and satisfying the needs of the people and enterprises in the territories they serve. Pedagogical innovation is related to the detection of the innovation and including it in the curriculum of the centre, organizing experimental training courses, using the project methodology, enhancing entrepreneurship, or introducing digital technologies in the classroom. Technological innovation is related to the use of the latest technologies and equipment in the market. Social Implications: This study opens new venues for research in the area of VET, CVET and lifelong learning because of its implications in adjusting education and training to the requirements of the labor market and improving students’ employability and helping them develop or design their personal projects and professional trajectory. The processes described in this article could be transferred to other contexts and in all types of activities or initiatives in lifelong learning. Originality/value: This study contributes to fill a gap in the scientific literature, because innovation in the area of continuing vocational and education training and even in lifelong learning is scarce. Another contribution of this article is the focus on innovation, which is one of the main priorities for the EU in the area of Education and Training, and also in the US, because of its contribution to economic growth and competitivity.
Najopsežniji zbornik svetačkih legendi dopreporodne hrvatske književnosti – Cvet sveteh ali živlenje i čini svecev (u 4 knjige, tiskane 1752., 1756., 1760. i 1761. godine) – kajkavskoga hagiografskog ...pisca, pavlina Hilariona Gašparotija (1714.-1762.) sadrži i životopis svetoga Jeronima. Tekst Žitek svetog Hijeronima (Cvet sveteh, knj. III.) nalazi se na dan 30. rujna te sadrži opširno razvedenu hagiografiju u kojoj je detaljno opisan Jeronimov život, rad na prevođenju Svetoga pisma, brojna svečeva čudesa učinjena za života i poslije smrti. Premda se Gašparoti u sastavljaju zbornika Cvet sveteh služio brojnim i raznovrsnim izvorima i teško je pronaći moguće direktne predloške njegova hagiografskog djela, usporedna analiza pokazala je da postoje tekstualne podudarnosti Jeronimova Žiteka i Jeronimovih životopisa u Zlatnoj legendi (13. st.), kao i u Canisiusovu latinskom prijevodnom djelu Flos Sanctorum sive Vitae Sanctorum in modum concionum scriptae Petro Ribadineira, soc. Jesu (Colonia, 1700.). Od domaćih izvora, uočene su sličnosti Žiteka s Jeronimovom biografijom u Cvitu svetih Franje Glavinića. Gašparotijev Žitek svetog Hijeronima pokazuje se kao važna karika duge i bogate književne tradicije hrvatskih legendi o svetom Jeronimu.
The most comprehensive collection of saint legends of Pre-Revival Croatian literature – Cvet sveteh ali živlenje i čini svecev (Anthology of the Holy or the Lives and Acts of Saints, in 4 books, printed in 1752, 1756, 1760, and 1761) by Kajkavian hagiographic writer, Pauline monk Hilarion Gašparoti (1714-1762) contains, amongst others, the biography of St. Jerome. Gašparoti collected biographies of saints worshiped »in our Croatian or Slavic land« (Cro. »vu našem Horvackem iliti Slovenskem orsagu«). The text of Žitek svetog Hijeronima (The Life of Saint Jerome, in Cvet sveteh, book III) appears under 30th September, and contains a comprehensive hagiography with a detailed description of St. Jerome’s life, his work on translating the Holy Scriptures, and the numerous miracles he performed in his lifetime and after his death. As with Gašparoti’s other hagiographies, his methodology in compiling St. Jerome’s biography was meticulous and based on in-depth knowledge of Croatian and international hagiographic literature. Gašparoti used many diverse sources for his Cvet sveteh anthology and it is difficult to definitively ascertain its immediate models. However, a comparative analysis has uncovered textual correspondences between Gašparoti’s hagiography of St. Jerome and the biographies published in Zlatna legenda (The Golden Legend) from the 13th century and in Canisius’s Latin translation of Flos Sanctorum sive Vitae Sanctorum in modum concionum scriptae Petro Ribadineira, soc. Jesu (Cologne, 1700). As for Croatian sources, similarities exist between Gašparoti’s Žitek and St. Jerome’s biography in Franjo Glavinić’s Cvit svetih (Anthology of the Holy). Gašparoti does not reproduce his sources verbatim, but does occasionally quote from them, often employing creative interpolations and extensive explanations to produce a novel coherent hagiographic text. Overall, Gašparoti’s Žitek svetog Hijeronima proves to be an important link in the long and rich literary tradition of Croatian legends about St. Jerome.
The promotion of equity, social cohesion and active citizenship is the third objective of the Strategic framework – Education & Training 2020, of the European Union. The objective of this article is ...to analyse how is the CIFO network in Catalonia advancing towards this European objective1. After explaining creation and evolution of the CIFO network, which is part of the CVET policy and, thus, of the lifelong learning policy in Catalonia, we analyse two of the main tools -related in the scientific literature with social justice and social cohesion-, which all CIFO develop within their activity: the recognition of prior learning (RPL) and the professional certificates. Using secondary and published data from European, Spanish and Catalan institutions, in addition to the scientific literature, legislative and document analyses, and direct observation, we explore this relationship between the European objective of promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship and the activity of the CIFO network. Preliminary data shows that CIFO are advancing towards this European objective by developing RPL and professional certificates, targeting people from disadvantaged groups and by providing education in issues related to employability, gender equality and environmental protection.
Against the background of demographic change and skill shortages continuing vocational training is of great significance in Germany. However, the training effectiveness is mostly assessed only at the ...end of a training program or several months after the training. Since in continuing vocational training the two contexts learning field (training) and performance field (work context) act simultaneously, the presented study investigated whether there are already situations in the work context which allow the application of newly acquired knowledge in parallel with the training. The main focus lies in the identification of predictors of learning transfer that takes place alongside the training participation and in the investigation of their causal relationships. Using structural equation modelling five latent variables were identified which have a significant effect on learning transfer parallel to the training-the so called collateral learning transfer. These five predictors explain together 62% of the variance of collateral learning transfer (gathered as performance improvement at work).
Phomopsis stem canker is a worldwide fungal disease which causes drastic reductions in yield and oil content as a result of premature plant wilting and lodging. Although it is agreed that the ...sunflower canopy plays a major role in the success of infection, no quantitative variable has been proposed until now for basing spraying decisions on the agronomic risk at field level. The objective of this study is to evaluate the suitability of two early indicators of a sunflower crop canopy for predicting crop injury for a wide range of agronomic, climatic and cultivar conditions in south-western France. Linear regressions were established between the proportion of stems with girdling lesions (SGL, %) and each of the two canopy indicators: plant height (H) and fraction of photosynthetically active radiation intercepted (
fPARi). Critical values of H
=
52
cm and
fPARi
=
48% were determined for SGL
=
15%, which is adopted as the damage threshold. A decision rule for chemical spraying based on these indicators was evaluated using a large database (17 trials, 431 plots, five cultivar classes of susceptibility). The value of spraying or not according to the observation of early indicators was correct in 83% of the situations using
fPARi and in 77% of the situations using plant height. This simple rule is proposed to refine the characterization of the agronomic risk in the decision grid used in France.
Sound initial vocational education is an important precondition for subsequent episodes of vocational education or professional development. The presence of strong occupational identities and labour ...markets is argued to be a precondition for high-quality initial vocational education and training (IVET) and continuing vocational education and training (CVET) in many countries. The question of whether occupational identity and boundaries are in decline or are relatively stable is examined in relation to the UK and to northern European countries, particularly Germany. A review of the evidence suggests that, in contrast to societies such as the UK where occupational identity is relatively weak, countries such as Germany where it is very strong are characterized by strong systems of IVET and relative occupational career stability. Broadly based IVET also allows for occupational mobility across intrasectoral occupational boundaries. In the UK, take-up of CVET is closely related to positive prior educational outcomes.
PDF
