This book draws on experiences from a range of vocational education
systems in different nation states and re-examines the purpose of
providing experiences outside educational institutions; the kinds and
extent of those experiences; and efforts made to ensure the integration
of students' experiences across sites. Analyses of the various
vocational education systems, their purposes and practices across
nations, and challenges experienced by different stakeholders illustrate
different approaches to the integration of learning at different sites.
The book includes a consideration of what constitutes the integration
and reconciliation of experiences, and their attendant educational
implications. This extends an appraisal of the concepts of integration,
reconciliation, curriculum and work readiness, each of which has a range
of connotations. Integration or reconciliation is differentiated from
transfer of learning, which is commonly based on simple assumptions that
the educational institutions will provide theory and that the workplaces
will provide practice from the workplaces, and that the two can be
easily linked by students. The contributions from different nation
states clearly demonstrate that integration is a collaborative process
and requires the agency of stakeholders operating at global, national
and specific learning site levels.