International Research Snapshot
RESEARCH SNAPSHOT | Hannele Hentula, Senior Librarian, ETIS (Education and Training Information Service) Centre for Learning & Innovation, DET
This eZine feature is brought to you by ETIS - the Department of Education and Training’s Education and Training Information Service. ETIS manages the NSW Vocational Education and Training Database linking in with the national vocational education database managed by NCVER. They are excellently placed and qualified to identify and share with us these key, recent reports and articles with particular relevance to VET teaching and learning. (Ed)
The ETIS intranet is available to TAFE NSW staff.
- Making work-based learning work: identifying effective practice in the delivery of apprenticeships
- Workplace Training in Europe
- Blended Learning: Why Everything Old Is New Again—But Better
- Blended Learning Fuels Sales at Toshiba A CASE STUDY
HUGHES, Maria & Monteiro, Helen 2005, Making work-based learning work: identifying effective practice in the delivery of apprenticeships , 87p, Learning and Skills Development Agency, London.
Good practice is generally in place in relation
to initial assessment, individual learning plans and on-the-job assessment
according to the conclusions of this report. However, development may now
need to move to other areas, eg to more personalised program delivery and
to designing programmes to help small and medium-sized enterprises to recruit – including
from under-represented groups.
The criteria for good practice for the delivery of apprenticeships were developed with training providers after a review of literature and other information sources. Providers were surveyed with a draft of the criteria and requested to match the criteria with the practice. (The criteria in a form of a checklist are attached as Appendix 4.)
The wide range of criteria reflects the complex world of apprenticeship delivery and can be reassessed and improved for different contexts.
Workplace Training
BASSANINI, Andrew; Booth, Alison; Brunello, Giorgio; De Paola, Maria & Leuven, Edwin 2005, Workplace Training in Europe , DP No. 1640, 187p, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn, Germany.
Major factors in the labour market are investigated in this report, eg unions,
product market competition, participation in training, the cost and benefits
of training and policy issues in Europe. The authors show that most workplace
training is done by employers who pay most of the training costs.
The extent and outcomes of training in Europe and some OECD countries are also explored. There are significant differences between European countries. The UK, France and Scandinavian countries have high participation and high annual hours of training whereas Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain lag behind. Northern European countries invest more in research and development than the southern countries, and this is one factor that boosts training and skills development.
The authors also discuss the new way of thinking in labour economics and how they related to workbased training. Traditionally, it is assumed that a completely competitive labour market is the desirable benchmark model. The new theory about the imperfectly competitive labour market is still under development, but it offers new insights into conditions where intervention in the labour market may be needed.
Blended Learning
GRAY, Caroline 2006, Blended Learning: Why Everything Old Is New Again – But Better
Caroline Gray, Director of technology-based learning, Omega Performance, explores the four stages of learning:
Stage 1: Initial knowledge or skill acquisition,
Stage 2: Increased knowledge or skill proficiency,
Stage 3: Ability to apply knowledge or skill in simple situations and
Stage 4: Ability to apply knowledge or skill in increasingly complex situations, to think through a solution.
Training methods linked to each of the four stages of learning are presented in a chart.
Gray also compares the cost of elearning training, a workshop, and blended learning option. The blended learning turned out to be the most time and cost efficient solution.
Gray concludes that blended learning can sustain behavioural change and argues that ‘the principle of blended learning is that it uses the most effective medium for each stage of the learning continuum, and leverages technological capabilities to extend learning on the job’.
HARRIS, Paul 2005, Blended Learning Fuels Sales at Toshiba - A CASE STUDY
Toshiba America Business Solutions (California) has received two Best Awards from the American Society for Training and Development. In 2005 its Training to Go (TTG) program won, which was based on its SWAT (Special Weekly Acquisition Training) initiative – the winning training program of 2004.
The purpose of Training to Go is to give new sales representatives greater product knowledge while allowing them to choose the time, methods and pace of learning. The strategy utilised ‘Training-in-a-Box’ units that contain WiFi-enabled Toshiba notebook computers, a wireless network, a Toshiba LCD projector, and TTG participant materials (workbooks, sales rep guides and introductory CDs). A two-day hands-on seminar is also part of the package.
