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This paper aims to analyse how learning levels differ within and between degrees and diplomas with specific application to the Bachelor of Applied Business Studies degree and the New Zealand Diploma of Business, which are delivered at a New Zealand polytechnic.

A literature review and content analysis of National Qualifications Frameworks was conducted to analyse how learning levels differ within and between degrees and diplomas with specific application to the Bachelor of Applied Business Studies degree and the New Zealand Diploma of Business which are offered at a New Zealand polytechnic.

A literature review and content analysis of National Qualifications Frameworks reveals that learning levels are differentiated by level of complexity, degree of abstraction, depth in a major subject, research competency, learner autonomy and responsibility, relative demand placed on students and increasing complexity and unpredictability of operational context. This analysis failed to find any difference in learning level between Bachelor of Applied Business Studies and New Zealand Diploma of Business papers nominally at the same level on the New Zealand National Qualifications Framework. The degree comprises a portion of papers at a higher learning level than the diploma and it is at this level that the difference is realised.

Future research should investigate learning level differences between disciplines, qualifications and institutions.

This paper provides a framework on which to base course design, delivery and assessment of the Bachelor of Applied Business Studies degree and the New Zealand Diploma of Business and credit transfer between them.

This case study addresses the increasingly important issue of the compatibility of learning levels between different qualifications. As many economies acknowledge the necessity for increasingly skilled workforces, credit transfer to enable seamless transfer between qualifications is becoming a focus in seeking to facilitate lifelong learning. There are few studies that focus on National Qualifications level descriptors and the implications for different qualification types.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the ways in which postgraduate study in vocational fields supports the development of advanced competences amongst mid‐career professionals.

The extensive written communications between health and safety professionals taking a postgraduate course in health and safety management and their tutor were investigated to determine the competence domains where learning was taking place or attempted. The individual written communications were analysed and each issue raised allocated to a learning area. The quantitative results for each area were determined. The learning areas were assigned to one or more competence development domains.

The quantified results demonstrate that the main domain where mid‐career professionals on this postgraduate course were most strongly challenged to learn and develop in advanced competences was the meta‐competence domain on the Cheetham and Chivers model.

This study was based on written communications passing between a limited number of students and one tutor on a single postgraduate study programme. There is clearly great scope to extend this form of research given the large number of postgraduate vocational study programmes now undertaken by mid‐career professionals.

Tutors need to focus strongly on supporting the very demanding learning leading to the growth of meta‐competencies. Given the ready availability of relevant factual information to mid‐career professionals in the information age, there is much less need to focus on teaching facts, although supporting the interpretation and application of such factual information by students retains great importance.

Few other studies exist which attempt to analyse written communications between tutors and postgraduate students on professional/vocational courses in terms of how such courses are developing professional competences.

This paper details a teacher-implemented intervention, negotiating learner-generated materials, with the aim of improving low levels of learner motivation. This had resulted from the introduction of a problematic entry test policy acting as gatekeeper to an internationally-accredited diploma course in the learners’ specialized technical subject. For the learners, successful completion of the diploma course would guarantee social and financial benefits including promotion, increased salary and prestige within the military institution. However, an order came from the commanding officer that learners would only be accepted onto the diploma course if they attained an IELTS test score of Band 5. This requirement was not attainable by the learners in the time available and represented a threat to their career aspirations, which would negatively affect them personally, economically and professionally. Consequently, there was a substantial drop in learner motivation. An intervention was constructed and conducted during the course over a two-week period to supplement students’ course book in order to counter such poor levels of motivation. The study was set within the critical paradigm, using quantitative and qualitative data collecting methods to answer my research question: “To what extent does the intervention (asking learners to choose a topic, select original material, and suggest the type of tasks to be produced for the material) have a positive effect on learners’ levels of motivation?” Key findings included an observed increase in learner engagement and a greater level of concentration than in recent classes together with reduced learner worry about the IELTS test. Several conclusions are offered as to the efficacy of conducting such an intervention and how it could impact on learner motivation.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the formal workplace learning situation in Nepal and argue that workplace learning is not in priority in Nepali Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) despite a regular policy emphasis.

Data were gathered using both desk-based review of pre-diploma and diploma-level curricula and semi-structured interviews with eight employers and six technical school principals. Coded themes were interpreted in the meaning-making process.

Workplace skills learning in Nepal has remained a neglected agenda. Despite some successful implementation practices and policy recognition, it is stagnated. Employers expect skills in graduates relevant to their demands. However, unfortunately, there needs to be more trust for a culture of shared responsibilities among employers and TVET providers for arranging the provisions so that the learners can acquire the skills that the employers need. There is a blaming game between them, which has ultimately resulted in the poor arrangement of workplace learning.

TVET providers’ and employers’ engaged participation in recognizing and developing workplace learning for making the learning as per the needs of the world of work could benefit them and also support students to upgrade and acquire employability skills.

This paper is based on empirical data and contributes new knowledge in academia which is still rare in the context of Nepal.

Library assistants were originally considered to be professional librarians in the making, and were trained accordingly. With the expansion of libraries and librarianship, Britain's “apprenticeship” system of qualification gave way to formal library school education, and a new category of “non‐professional staff” was created, of people who were unwilling or unable to proceed to graduate‐level qualification. The development of non‐professional certificates of competence in the UK is described against parallel developments in the US, Canada and Australia; the COMLA training modules are also examined. The theoretical and practical issues surrounding training are discussed, training schemes and qualifications in the four countries analysed, and the relative merits of in‐house training and external certificate programmes argued.

The purpose of this study was to examine effects of the human aspects of the learning organisation (i.e. continuous learning; inquiry and dialogue; team collaboration and learning; and employee empowerment) on the performance of a public university’s administrative staff. Differences in the human aspects of the learning organisation across perhaps the two most important demographic characteristics (educational attainment and years of experience) were also examined.

This study focused exclusively on the human aspect of the dimensions of the learning organisation questionnaire. Specifically, differences in the people aspect of learning organization (PALO) across demographic characteristics were analysed using the Kruskal–Wallis test with a Bonferroni adjustment to the alpha values in the Mann–Whitney U tests that followed. Hierarchical linear regression using the standard (enter) method was adopted in analysing the PALO and administrative staff performance while controlling for age and gender.

This study demonstrated that a difference in the PALO existed across the education level and years of experience of the administrative staff. Specifically, Diploma holders performed better than those with Postgraduate degree. Also, administrative staff with 5–10 years of experience did better than the staff who had more than 15 years of experience. In addition, continuous learning; inquiry and dialogue; and collaboration and team learning each had a significant effect on administrative staff performance.

Employees, especially those with higher levels of education and more work experience, should be motivated through rewards as well as challenging and thought-provoking tasks as they could serve as mechanisms that would make them contribute substantially to the sustainability of the PALO. Again, public universities should pay attention to the PALO, which is at the individual and team levels.

This study focuses solely on the people aspect of the dimensions of the learning organisation questionnaire and sheds light on its importance to the learning organisation culture.

BUSINESS SCHOOL GRAFFITI is a highly personal and revealing account of the first ten years (1965–1975) at Britain’s University Business Schools. The progress achieved is documented in a whimsical fashion that makes it highly readable. Gordon Wills has been on the inside throughout the decade and has played a leading role in two of the major Schools. Rather than presuming to present anything as pompous as a complete history of what has happened, he recalls his reactions to problems, issues and events as they confronted him and his colleagues. Lord Franks lit a fuse which set a score of Universities and even more Polytechnics alight. There was to be a bold attempt to produce the management talent that the pundits of the mid‐sixties so clearly felt was needed. Buildings, books, teachers who could teach it all, and students to listen and learn were all required for the boom to happen. The decade saw great progress, but also a rapid decline in the relevancy ethic. It saw a rapid withering of interest by many businessmen more accustomed to and certainly desirous of quick results. University Vice Chancellors, theologians and engineers all had to learn to live with the new and often wealthier if less scholarly faculty members who arrived on campus. The Research Councils had to decide how much cake to allow the Business Schools to eat. Most importantly, the author describes the process of search he went through as an individual in evolving a definition of his own subject and how it can best be forwarded in a University environment. It was a process that carried him from Technical College student in Slough to a position as one of the authorities on his subject today.

Writers such as Schön and Argyris have been influential in our understanding of how people and organisations learn. They contend that “real” learning only takes place when we challenge assumptions and the taken‐for‐granted aspects of everyday working life, as well as the values on which these assumptions are based. Further, the ability of learning to learn (or “double‐loop learning” as it is sometimes called) at both an individual and an organisational level is regarded by such writers as the key skill in adapting to a fast‐changing world. With this framework in mind, professional courses such as the Advanced Professional Diploma in Public Relations at Leeds Metropolitan University have incorporated the philosophy of “reflective learning” in assessment. The assessment tool of this type of course is typically a reflective learning assignment where individual learners critically reflect on their own working practice in the light of newly acquired knowledge and skills. The assignment, at least in theory, is not an end in itself but the start of a continuous process of self‐reflection and challenging of assumptions underlying practice in everyday working life. It follows, therefore, that such an approach could have a relevance for innovation in individual working practices. This paper seeks to examine whether reflective learning conducted within an academic setting has a relevance for innovation in public relations. It draws on theories and discussion in the fields of organisational learning; reflective learning and reflective practice; a critical analysis of 25 reflective learning assignments; and six telephone interviews with public relations practitioners who have successfully completed the Advanced Professional Diploma in Public Relations at Leeds Metropolitan University. It is followed by a discussion of the link between their reflective learning and organisational learning, and suggests where innovation is most likely to occur. Finally, implications for academics and practitioners are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the mission of the Global University for Lifelong Learning (GULL) in supporting work and community‐based learning.

The paper explains the principles on which GULL's action learning system are based and outlines a typical starting point for work‐based learning.

The paper concludes by identifying the role of systemized action learning in support of the agenda for human resource development at Sandals Resorts International.

The paper indicates how a narrative‐based approach to learning at work can be used to reflect and improve on personal and organizational performance.

The paper relates the literature on action learning to its implementation in workplace and community settings.

This account aims to introduce contrasting perspectives on teaching and learning methods, and to detail the growth of new forms and vocabularies of access to learning. As we move towards the new millennium, the development of national, yet diversified, credit frameworks and systems will provide an essential underpinning for the organisational culture that will be needed to sustain the wellbeing and growth of the educational system. These new systems are already being incorporated into the practice of ‘virtual’ education. Lifelong learning has widespread support across the social and political spectrum and its importance can hardly be over‐stated as we seek to maintain competitiveness in a changing world. Increasing knowledge and understanding to serve both the needs of the economy and of individuals to play a major role in democratic life has become an agenda of necessity as well as desire. An open society requires open systems of knowledge. A prognosis for the future is submitted where the significance of part‐time modular and open flexible learning is evaluated in terms of a curriculum rooted in useful knowledge and competences, acquired at different sites of learning, including the workplace. It is argued that modular structures, using the potential offered by credit accumulation and transfer to different institutions with different missions, can transcend and transform the learning opportunities for students in a mass system of higher education which is rapidly becoming part of a global market economy and society. Continuous lifelong learning involving its key features of open access, recognition of learning wherever it takes place and the growth of new learning networks and partnerships, is at the conceptual heart of the development of the virtual university.