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Designing effective learning programs for the development of a broad occupational competence

  • Chapter
Key Qualifications in Work and Education

Abstract

The significance of core skills (or key qualifications) in vocational education and training and at work is a central theme of this book. However, when, where and how such core skills should be developed has been a matter of considerable debate. In England and Wales, for example, the degree of emphasis given to core skills development has varied greatly over the past fifteen years. In the early 1980s a major development program, with national government and matched European funding, was undertaken, focusing on the significance of core skills for work-based learning (Levy, 1987). Core skills were an essential element of government training programs (Evans et al, 1987). However, in the middle to late 1980s there was a major shift in direction. The emphasis of government training programs became more narrowly focused upon the development of occupational skills and, at the same time, the introduction of a system of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) heralded a concern with specifying in great detail the criteria associated with occupational competence (Jessup, 1991).

This chapter was produced as one outcome of an ESRC Research Project on the Comparative Analysis of Skill Formation Processes in England, Germany and Holland; ESRC Award No: H5242750294.

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Brown, A. (1998). Designing effective learning programs for the development of a broad occupational competence. In: Nijhof, W.J., Streumer, J.N. (eds) Key Qualifications in Work and Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5204-4_11

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