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Bangladesh is pledge bound to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities in the country. To support this commitment, the government has made the inclusion of persons with disabilities in skills training and employment a key priority and set a five per cent admission quota for students with disabilities in all technical and vocational training institutes. To help principals and teachers of technical and vocational training institutes overcome challenges towards becoming disability inclusive the Department of Technical Education has partnered with the International Labour Organization, Bangladesh - Skills for Employment and Productivity (B-SEP) Project, funded by the Government of Canada, to develop a guideline on disability inclusion. This guideline has been prepared based on pilot projects in this field and is meant to assist training institutions in their effort to promote equitable access to training opportunities for persons with disabilities. This is a practical guideline for [technical and vocational education and training] TVET principals and teachers that provides basic concepts of disability inclusion, what to consider when planning for inclusion, how to handle learning disabilities and provide reasonable accommodation and also the underpinning social aspects of inclusion.

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The TAFE National Centre for Research and Development conducted a comparative analysis of post-trade courses relevant to the oil industry in September 1985. This second project extends the work done in 1985 to include welders and it reviews some of the earlier rankings. It also proposes ways of dealing with the equivalence of other (overseas) qualifications at post-trade level. The objectives of the review were to: assess all welding courses and incorporate the results of the assessment into the Oil Companies' Schedule of Post-Trade Courses; to review several courses to re-determine their rankings within the Schedule; and recommend an approach to determining the equivalence of other qualifications, including those from overseas. Recommendations are set out under the following headings: fabrication and welding; industrial electronics; fluid power; mechanical; course options and combined evaluations; vertical ranking scale; future considerations and overseas qualifications. Show less

This paper illustrates two application of generalizability theory to evaluate construct-measurements of self-concept. The author emphasises two functions attributed to facets of indicators of the construct - the construct-representing function which points to the importance of representing the construct by its indicators in the domain of measurement, and the inferential function which pertains to their importance for estimating error variance associated with inferring or estimating the universe score. The representing function relates to issues of validity, while the inferential function relates to issues of reliability. He reports that illustrations were based on a sample of 2,114 twelfth grade students enrolled in vocational-technical high school programs provided by the NELS.88 data source (National Education Longitudinal Study: 1988-94, 1996).

Note: This research was supported by a grant from the Norwegian Research Council and carried out while the author was affiliated with the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Georgia in 1997. Show less

This guide provides trainers and assessors with a set of materials which focus on processes that will assist employees working at the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) level 3 to gain the necessary skills and confidence to enable them to participate in training aligned to higher level qualifications. These qualifications balance technical aspects of construction work with supervisory and management responsibility. The guide is comprised of three learning modules and two supporting resources. Show less

Objective: In the past decade, several authors have advocated that formative assessment programmes have an impact on teachers' knowledge. Consequently, various requirements have been proposed in the literature for the design of these programmes. Only few studies, however, have focused on a direct comparison between programmes with respect to differences observed in their effect on teachers' knowledge. Therefore in this study we explored the impact of three formative assessment programmes on teachers' knowledge about supporting students' reflection. Methods: Our study was carried out in the domain of vocational nursing education. Teachers were assigned to an expertise-based assessment programme, a self-assessment combined with collegial feedback programme, or a negotiated assessment programme. We scored the verbal transcriptions of teachers' responses to video vignette interviews in order to measure their knowledge in a pre- and post-test. Multilevel regression analyses were performed to investigate differences in teachers' knowledge between the three programmes on the post-test; potential moderating effects of pre-test scores, contextual and individual factors were controlled for.

Findings: The knowledge of teachers participating in the expertise-based assessment programme was significantly higher than that of teachers participating in the self-assessment combined with collegial feedback programme. Furthermore, the findings indicate that for professional learning, not only the approach to formative assessment is an important variable, but also the extent to which (a) teachers are intrinsically motivated and (b) they experience a high degree of collegiality at their school.

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This paper discusses findings that have arisen from the project ‘Transnational methods and models for self-evaluation of personal competencies’ which aimed to facilitate the awareness of adult learners/employees of their own personal competences and tacit skills through the introduction of various self-evaluation methods and approaches in their college or workplace settings. Show less

The VOCEDplus landmark documents are key documents considered by history and authoritative commentary to have influenced the development of the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system, providing vision and/or leading to significant change. This paper is part of a series of overviews that analyse and describe how these landmark documents impacted on the development of various aspects of Australia's VET sector. Its focus is on the impact the landmark documents have had on training and assessment in Australia's VET system. This overview demonstrates how training and assessment, as fundamental activities of vocational education, were viewed in different ways across the landmark documents. Up to the mid-1980s, a more traditional, educational perspective was evident with training seen as a practice comparable to that of schooling. The Dawkins policy papers of the late 1980s signalled a significant shift in the conceptualisation of training and assessment as playing a key role in national skills formation. Assessment not only confirmed and measured individual learning progress but served as a guarantee of system quality.

The landmark documents covered in this analysis are: TAFE in Australia: report on needs in technical and further education, April 1974 [Kangan report] (TD/LMR 85.637); Education, training and employment: report of the Committee of Inquiry into Education and Training [Williams report] (TD/LMR 85.677); COSTAC overseas mission to study developments in vocational education and training (TD/TNC 87.1259 and TD/TNC 90.776); Successful reform: competitive skills for Australians and Australian enterprises [FitzGerald report] (TD/LMR 85.636); Young people's participation in post-compulsory education and training: report of the Australian Education Council Review Committee [Finn review] (TD/LMR 85.641); Key competencies: report of the Committee to advise the Australian Education Council and Ministers of Vocational Education, Employment and Training on employment-related key competencies for postcompulsory education and training [Mayer report] (TD/LMR 85.658); [Dawkins trilogy]: A changing workforce (TD/LMR 85.675); Improving Australia's training system (TD/LMR 85.676); Skills for Australia (TD/LMR 85.648); Training costs of award restructuring: report of the Training Costs Review Committee [Deveson report] (TD/LMR 85.635); The Australian Vocational Certificate Training System [Carmichael report] (TD/LMR 85.646); Moving on: report of the high level review of training packages (TD/LMR 85.653); Formal preparation of TAFE teachers in Australia: a report to the Council by the Staff Development Advisory Committee [Fleming report] (TD/LMR 85.662); Enterprising nation: renewing Australia's managers to meet the challenges of the Asia-Pacific century [Karpin report] (TD/LMR 85.651). Show less

This issue of ‘Centerfocus’ focuses on the need for schools to develop ways of translating students’ academic achievement into a measure of their workplace readiness and, ultimately, their ability to succeed in their chosen career. The author argues that the generic and specific skills and knowledge required in workplaces must be integrated with ongoing assessment practices in schools. In this way, students can be given specific feedback on how well they are prepared for the workplace. The paper looks at how schools can identify methods of assessing workplace readiness, both generally and for specific occupations, referring to some national taxonomies that identify generic workplace readiness skills and knowledge. Types of assessment are then outlined, such as selected and constructed responses tests, performance-based assessments, and portfolios, with a final comment on the importance of matching assessments with purposes. Show less

Increased migration between Asia-Pacific countries and the rapid pace of regional integration are leading to increasing calls for quality assurance in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) qualifications. The third International Congress on TVET held in Shanghai in 2012, for example, recommended the development of guidelines to assist Member States in this process. To this end, UNESCO Bangkok with Asia-Pacific Member States developed this set of guidelines. The guidelines focus on the quality assurance of TVET qualifications based on findings from 13 country studies. The study was carried out through a participatory process involving consultation with Member States to best respond to their diverse contexts and needs.

The aim of these guidelines is to propose principles and indicators that can assist Member States in optimizing their quality assurance mechanisms for TVET qualifications. They provide a framework for documenting, developing, monitoring, evaluating and improving the currency and comparability of certificates, diplomas or degrees in TVET. Member States are strongly urged to make efforts to implement the guidelines as appropriate to their specific national contexts.

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This paper seeks to advance research and practice related to the role of employers in all stages of the assessment process of work-based learning (WBL) within a tripartite relationship of higher education institution (HEI), student and employer. It proposes a research-informed quality enhancement framework to develop good practice in engaging employers as partners in assessment. The Enhancement Framework comprises three dimensions, each of which includes elements and questions generated by the experiences of WBL students, HEI staff and employers. The three dimensions of the Enhancement Framework are: (1) ‘premises of assessment’, encompassing issues of learning, inclusion, standards and value; (2) ‘practice’, encompassing stages of assessment made up of course design, assessment task, responsibilities, support, grading and feedback; and (3) ‘communication of assessment’, with the emphasis on role clarity, language and pathways. With its prompt questions the Enhancement Framework may be used as a capacity-building tool for promoting, sustaining, benchmarking and evaluating productive dialogue and critical reflection about assessment between WBL partners. The paper concludes by emphasising the need for professional development as well as policy and research development, so that assessment in WBL can more closely correspond to the potentially transformative nature of the learning experience.

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