Delivering training in regional, rural and remote (RRR) Australia is not easy. Australia is a large, diverse country, and ensuring that training is suited to individual locations, which are unique in their landscapes, economies, industries and cultures, is challenging. There is an ongoing policy interest in making sure that the vocational…

Recent reviews of vocational qualifications in England have noted problems with their restricted nature. However, the underlying issue of how to conceptualise professional agency in curriculum design has not been properly addressed, either by the Richard or the Whitehead reviews. Drawing on comparative work in England and Europe it is argued that…

As rapid change threatens to outpace the skills of an ageing workforce and Europe developed towards a knowledge based society, the European Union, other European countries and the social partners have worked together to establish a policy framework for modernising education and training. In vocational education and training (VET), the EU has…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the internationalisation of nearly all spheres of society and the process of European integration will be leading to the development of a European vocational education and training VET architecture. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis of the "Copenhagen process" is based on…

Purpose: The paper's aim is to present a critical review of the current European process of co-operation in VET with a special view to the European Qualification Framework and its competence orientation. Design/methodology/approach: The approach reviews the official documentation and the consultation process and a contrastive analysis of the state…

In this paper, the issues involved in aligning national and meta-frameworks are explored and analysed. The exploration is timely, given that two qualifications meta-frameworks are currently being developed and implemented in Europe: the question is now how relationships should be established between these new reference tools and national…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a critical analysis of the European Commissions and the member states attempts to introduce a European Qualifications Framework and national frameworks respectively. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a review of policies and substantive desk research in countries that have applied a…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to look closely at the development of a European Credit Transfer System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). The European Commission, together with the member States, are working on it and several pilot projects have been initiated within the Leonardo da Vinci Programme of the European Commission.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the development of a European architecture of vocational education and promote an alternative proposal. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is the result of discussions of researchers in the Institut Technik und Bildung on a European Qualification Framework. Findings: The paper provides an…

Purpose: The quality of an education system or a comparative international assessment refers more and more to quantitative parameters, i.e. "educational indicators." The paper aims to analyse the structure of several educational indicators and indicator systems and answer the question "What can educational indicators achieve?"…

Purpose: This article aims to take up a mirror image-oriented position of the EQF and the announced ECVET system. It seeks to be concerned with the effects that the EQF transformation process into the respective NQF might have on the underlying systems of vocational education and training. Design/methodology/approach: A comparison is drawn between…

Purpose: This paper aims to explain the distinction between educational standards and learning outcomes and to indicate the problems that potentially arise when a learning outcomes approach is applied to a qualification meta-framework like the European Qualification Framework, or indeed to national qualification frameworks.…

Vocational education and training (VET) has a key role in facilitating regional economic development. One way that VET can do this is by forming partnerships with other organisations, such as other training providers, business/industry, schools and local government. This "At a Glance" publication gives an overview of recent research…

The continuing growth of Australia's international education market is causing providers to consider moving from international business approaches to global strategies. This paper examines factors affecting a regional Australian educational provider's approach to the international student market, using Tropical North Queensland TAFE (TNQT) for…