Shaping Flexibility in Vocational Education and Training

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Shaping conditions for a flexible VET

      • Loek F. M. Nieuwenhuis, Wim J. Nijhof, Anja Heikkinen

      Pages 3-14

3. Institutional And Organisational Aspects Of Flexibility

   1. Vocational education and training in transition: From Fordism to a learning economy

      • Kurt Mayer

      Pages 17-33

   2. Learning organisations for VET

      • Loek F. M. Nieuwenhuis

      Pages 35-52

   3. Perspectives on institutional and organisational flexibility in VET

      • Leif Hommen

      Pages 53-63

4. Educational Tools and Resources for Flexibility

   1. Institutional responses to a flexible unified system

      • Cathy Howieson, David Raffe, Teresa Tinklin

      Pages 67-84

   2. Demand and supply of qualifications: systems’ change towards flexibility

      • Luisa Ribolzi

      Pages 85-102

   3. Developments in vocational education in Ireland

      • David Tuohy

      Pages 103-112

   4. From a unified to a flexible vocational system: the Hungarian transition case

      • LÁSzlÓ ZachÁr

      Pages 113-126

   5. Design and effects of a flexible VET system: a case study in Dutch agricultural education

      • Jos Geerligs, Wim J. Nijhof

      Pages 127-148

   6. Valuing learning outcomes acquired in non-formal settings

      • Gerald A. Straka

      Pages 149-165

   7. Resources for flexibility: critical comments

      • Fernando Marhuenda

      Pages 167-180

5. Professional Conditions

   1. Professionalism as a path for the reform of VET systems

      • Lorenz Lassnigg

      Pages 183-205

   2. Transforming VET policies and professionalism: a view from Finland

      • Anja Heikkinen

      Pages 207-225

   3. HRD as a professional career? Perspectives from Finland, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom

      • Tuija HytÖnen, Rob Poell, Geoff Chivers

      Pages 227-242

   4. Challenges of supporting learning of newly qualified professionals in health care

      • Alan Brown

      Pages 243-257

   5. The practices of a new VET profession

      • Phil Hodkinson

      Pages 259-268

6. Back Matter

   Pages 269-272

   PDF

Flexibility seems to be the core concept of economic and educational change in our time. The promise of solutions to many problems at the individual, institutional, and national level evokes as much controversy as acclaim. This might be related to the different perspectives of actors and researchers involved in problem-solving in Vocational Education and Training (VET), where, on the one hand, solutions should be sought in key qualifications and transferability, in changing teaching and learning processes, while, on the other, political, institutional, organisational, and professional conditions are seen as the key interventions to build a responsive workforce on the basis of a re-engineered VET system. Consequently, flexibility in connection with vocational education and training and the labour market has several divergent connotations.

• education
• mobility
• organization
• profession
• qualification
• vocational education

• University of Twente, The Netherlands

  Wim J. Nijhof

• University of Jyväskylä, Finland

  Anja Heikkinen

• Stoas Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands

  Loek F. M. Nieuwenhuis

Policies and ethics