Context: International comparative research on Vocational Education and Training (VET) is gaining importance, as global cooperation and mutual learning in VET grows. However, it is characterized by a high degree of complexity, due on one hand, to the heterogeneity of the VET sector, and on the other hand to the unique challenges of international…

Purpose: This article aims to conduct a critical analysis of key-competences-based education in China today by revealing three main challenges that Chinese educational practitioners, researchers, and policymakers might face. Design/Approach/Methods: Against the backdrop of international and Chinese policy and the practice of key-competences-based…

Curriculum development for distance education (DE) practitioners is more and more focusing on practical requirements and competence development. Delphi and DACUM methods have been used at some universities. However, in the competency-based development area, these methods have been taken over by professional-task-based development in the last…

This paper reports a study on developing an assessment inventory of Chinese learners' competencies as needed for the twenty-first century. In creating the instrument, three relevant twenty-first century competency frameworks were referenced: from the OECD, the European Council, and the USA. The preliminary version of this instrument, which…

The Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) is a collaboration between Michigan State University, the Global Food Safety Initiative of the Consumer Goods Forum, and other food industry and public sector partners. FSKN's goal is to help strengthen the food industry's response to the complex food safety knowledge and training challenges that affect…

Since the early 1990s, China's government has followed a socialist market economy system. Accordingly, the technical and vocational education (TVE) should be restructured to meet its needs. Reform of the TVE system has four aspects. First, reform of the planning system includes a move from a central plan of enrollment to planning according to…

This CD-ROM contains 693 papers on university teaching and research in the education of adults that were presented during the 27-year period from 1970 through 1997. The CD-ROM is designed to be used with the Macintosh, Windows 95, and Windows 3.1 operating systems and Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (version 3), which is included along with…

This document contains 35 papers from the program development section of an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. The following are among the papers included: "Using Quality Indicators to Create World-Class Curricula: From Concept to Application" (Curtis Finch,…

This document contains 123 papers from an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. The papers focus on the following themes: (1) societal and ethical issues; (2) human resource development and personnel training; (3) international issues; (4) information technology in VET;…