Session Information
02 SES 14 A, Teachers & Trainers V: Quality Education and Training
Paper Session
Contribution
The challenge of training professionals for the real sector of economy has emerged due to immense development of high technologies, shortening the period from development to implementation, and growing technological needs of the society. As a result, it needs new approaches for education in the field of engineering/technical trades to make curricula sensitive to demands of companies and methodologically flexible to provide an efficient and comprehensive innovation‐based education in teaching. This challenge is common for all regions involved in implementation of the project TEEDE: Spain, Italy, Finland, Germany, Russia, China, India, and Cambodia. One of the most promising approaches is to get companies onboard, which participate actively in the training and teaching process. We focus our activities on programmes that foresee curricula for the learning venue “company” (also); often named “dual study programmes” or “higher education apprenticeships (HEA)”; sheer internships are not included.
This vocational drift of higher education (HE) is observable by a stronger integration of practical learning in HE and an increasing demand of work based learning. But, often, it is not adequately reflected in changes in the learning environment. For this reason, the European Network of Cooperative Work Integrated Higher Education (CWIHE) claims for more coordination between theoretical and practical components as a requirement for high quality HEA. Also the European Commission (EC) pointed out that work-based learning must be guided by a pedagogical focus and shared responsibility. " All on-the-job learning periods, even short ones, should have a clear pedagogical purpose, defined learning outcomes and specified objectives that both the learner and the employer are aware of" [EC, 2013].
The study is focused on the following research questions:
- To what extent and how are non-traditional approaches of combing Work-Based-Learning (WBL) and traditional class-room teaching on tertiary level (HE) existing in the participating countries?
- What are the responsibilities of the state institutions and agencies, social partners, universities and other stakeholders in the design of joint curricula, the organisation of training and co-operation of learning venues, and the assessment of acquired competencies and qualifications of double-qualified learners?
- Which of the existing programmes have “a clear pedagogical purpose, defined learning outcomes and specified objectives” (as cited above) and thus can be considered as cases of apparent good practice?
- What are the supporting and hindering factors (e.g. roles of stakeholders, traditions, beliefs) in the countries that develop programmes that refer to cases of “apparent good practice” of other countries?
Method
We applied the following methods of research: 1. Collecting and analysis of literature, existing research data and statistics on existing programmes of HEA and its specifics like the role of stakeholders. (Desk research) 2. Critical analysis of the available curricula, both in terms of content and structures, as well as other official documents like co-operation arrangements between companies and universities. 3. Interviews of stakeholders, especially of delegates from industry, with semi-structured questionnaires. 4. The findings of research are analysed for each country separately and then compared.
Expected Outcomes
The study and our presentation will provide the following outcomes: A.: Findings and hypotheses on the research questions above; in brief: 1. There is a manifoldness of different programmes in the participating countries, ranging from ad-hoc (tailor-made) measures with innovative (or unscripted) local curricula that often rely on the engagement of a single person to established programmes, being routed in dozens of years of traditions with national-wide established curricula. 2. Roles and responsibilities are widespread in the different models; in the best case, there is a cooperation on eye-level between university (being in charge for all aspects of teaching, learning, assessing etc. in the classroom) and delegates from social partners, who take care of the same for learning venue “company”. 3. Tailor-made, often modularized programmes seem to be more flexible, e.g. in updating curricula resp. Learning Outcomes due to new technological developments. But they are a risk for the freedom of teaching and learning at universities, as it might happen that industry dictates the content. In our estimation standardized programmes, that do have established structures but allow a certain degree of freedom (e.g. not too detailed curricula) are favorable. 4. The main supporting factor is the mismatch of skills and knowledge of leavers of traditional educational pathways and the industry needs and the acknowledgement of this fact by industry delegates; main hindering factor is the belief, that education is a public duty, only. B: We will present a new higher education apprenticeship programme from India (TIIM Madras), referring to the German model of dual studies.
References
EC (2013) European Alliance for Apprenticeships. Declaration of the European Social Partners, the European Commission and the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=EN&f=ST%2014986%202013%20INIT
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