Title
Schooling in the workplace : how six of the world's best vocational education systems prepare young people for jobs and life / Nancy Hoffman.
ISBN
9781612501116 (pbk.)
1612501117 (pbk.)
9781612501123
1612501125
Imprint
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Education Press, c2011.
Language
English
Description
xii, 212 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Call Number
LC1081 .H64 2011
Dewey Decimal Classification
375.0086
Summary
Which non-American education systems best prepare young people for fulfilling jobs and successful adult lives? And what can the United States, where far too many young people currently enter adulthood without adequate preparation for the twenty-first-century job market, learn, adopt, and adapt from these other systems? In this work the author addresses these questions head on, arguing that "the smartest and quickest route to a wide variety of occupations for the majority of young people in the successful countries, not a default for failing students, is a vocational program that integrates work and learning." As she notes, the programs that successfully integrate work and learning all share a fundamental commitment to helping young people find successful careers: "The purpose is not 'college for all,' as in the United States today, but rather to provide the education and training young people need to prepare for a career or calling." This book explores the vocational education programs in a wide range of countries, focusing in rich and useful detail on six in particular: Australia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland. Framing these discussions, however, is a persistent focus on American circumstances and challenges. Far more than a survey of six "foreign" programs, this is a book prompted by and organized around the policy and practical challenges facing the United States.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-192) and index.
Qualifying for a calling: the philosophical rationale for vocational education
Employer engagement: good for the bottom line, good for young people
State-directed VET systems: formal public/private partnerships in action
The German dual system: A U.S. observer reflects on a strong VET system / by Robert B. Schwartz
Workplace learning: "the school is not the center of the world"
Ordinary teenagers, extraordinary results: apprentices at work / by Nancy Hoffman
Changing the outcomes of youth left behind: policies and practices that protect and support
Possibilities in the United States.
