Vocational Education Pedagogy and the situated practices of teaching core skills

Abstract

This chapter explores cutting-edge educational research in the field of generic core skills and the pedagogic practices of teaching work-based vocational education to young people. It argues for a complete transformation on how we conceptualize and teach generic skills. The reader is invited to rethink the fundamental assumptions that underpin the notion of transferable skills, the division created between theory and practice and the role played by outcome-based competency standards in education. The argument is made for conceptualizing vocational education as a material, discursive and normative set of practices that rely heavily upon context-dependent learning environments. Best-practice examples of teaching core skills are identified from a range of organizations in the UK. Finally, the debate on generic skills is set within a broader international context. The audience to benefit most from this discussion includes researchers in work-based learning; national and institutional policy makers in post-compulsory education; teachers of vocational education; human resources development managers and further and higher education teachers.