Vocations and Learning最新文献

Initial vocational training (VT) in high school consists of short-term programs leading to employment in a skilled trade. To better align training with employment opportunities and to encourage students to stay in the programs until they graduate, most programs include traineeship. Since traineeships involve acquiring skills directly on the job, they require greater involvement of supervisors to guide the trainees. Given the importance of on-the-job guidance in achieving traineeship objectives, this study examines the potential influence of three dimensions of guidance provided by traineeship supervisors –planning, support, and training– on students’ job perception (i.e., occupational image) and traineeship satisfaction. Overall, the results provide mixed results, partially supporting the mediation hypothesis suggested by the results of previous studies. Indeed, the results reveal that the quality of the training offered by the supervisor affects subsequent students’ satisfaction with traineeship experience. Training has an indirect effect on satisfaction via the occupational image held by students. However, the expected indirect links between the other two dimensions of supervisor guidance –degree of planning and support perceived by the student– and the students’ image of their chosen occupation could not be confirmed. The results support the importance of providing quality on-the-job training to students during their studies.

Abstract

The rise of internships as a form of work experience that students pursue during their degree or after graduation has been accompanied by an upsurge of discussions, critical and favourable, on the role of internships for interns’ employment opportunities. There is a need, however, to understand the learning that goes in internship as for many students internship is a setting where work practices are encountered for the first time. Recently it has been suggested that unaccredited internship can be seen as constituting a separate work activity that needs to be examined in its own right. The aim of this article is to contribute to this literature by focusing on the learning challenges that arise in unaccredited internship and identifying the capacities that interns develop as a result of tackling these challenges. To that end, I identify a set of analytical concepts from vocational learning literature developed to understand the challenges and opportunities associated with learning across contexts (i.e. education and work): horizontal expertise, boundary-crossing, recontextualisation and identity-renegotiation. Then I analyse data on learning in unaccredited internships collected from five focus groups and two interviews (18 interns). A dialogic discourse analysis of focus group and interview discourses revealed that the interns in unaccredited internship developed an emerging capacity to learn and work competently across multiple contexts and to initiate and coordinate subsequent cycles of boundary-crossing between education and work. The paper proposes the notion of “interns’ horizontal expertise” to describe this emerging capacity that arises from learning in unaccredited internship and continues after the internship and explains how this concept differs from other expressions of horizontal expertise in the literature such as the horizontal expertise of seasoned professionals in inter-professional activities and boundary-crossing in work placements.

This study explores potential disparities between flight instructor evaluations and pilot self-assessments in the context of full flight simulator training. Evaluated performance was based on the Competency-based Training and Assessment framework, a recent development of competency-based education within aviation. Self-assessed performance is derived from survey responses and debriefing interviews. The simulator session involves eight multi-crew pilot training graduates and eight experienced flight captains, encompassing two tasks featuring sudden technical malfucntions during flight. The flight instructor’s evaluations reveal no significant differences in pilot performance. However, disparities become apparent when pilots engaged in reflecting their performance. Novice pilots, despite perceiving both tasks as easy, exhibited an overconfidence that led them to underestimate the inherent risks. Conversely, experienced pilots demonstrated greater caution towards the risks and engaged in discussing possible hazards. Furthermore, this study highlights the challenge of designing flight simulator training that incorporates surprise elements. Pilots tend to anticipate anomalies more readily in simulator training than during actual flights. Thus, this study underscores the importance of examining how pilots reflect on their performance, complementing the assessment of observable indicators and predefined competencies.

The study aims to identify profiles of trainee teachers in terms of their stress and work experiences and to uncover profile differences in regard to dropout intentions and perceived relationships between trainee teachers and their mentors. Based on data from 1,756 German trainee teachers, three distinct stress and work experience profiles could be identified. Trainee teachers with high levels of stress and negative work experiences exhibit higher dropout intentions and experience their relationship with their mentors as less transparent, fair and trusting, and more ambivalent compared to trainee teachers with low levels of stress and positive work experiences. The results underline the importance of the relationship between mentors and trainee teachers for the professional development of future teachers.