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The purpose of this paper is to identify critical factors of total quality management (TQM), for use in a possible framework that addresses sustainable quality improvements in technical institutes as a plausible means of TQM implementation in higher education programs.

The literature survey of the TQM and related quality methodologies and content analysis of TQM literature in technical institutes provide the theoretical and practical background for this work. The content analysis was carried out following the standard principles of deductive reasoning and subsequently, relevant factors were identified for implementations.

Unlike the scenario in industry, TQM philosophies have to be adopted differently for a successful implementation in technical institutes. The identified critical factors of TQM and related quality improvement methodologies provide a comprehensive guideline for an effective and efficient implementation of TQM in technical institutes.

This paper identifies the critical factors of quality improvement initiatives that are most comprehensive and have potential to address the quality issues of technical institutes. The critical factors identified in this study, offer a practical guidance for academics to implement TQM in technical institutes and can form the basis for delineating a mathematical model for these institutes.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the status, values, and attributes of dual education. It investigates key elements of the dual education system in four selected countries while examining and recommending dynamics and roles for governmental policy, technical and vocational institutes, and employers in developing a dual education system in Thailand to generate a competitive workforce. The tripartite system of technical and vocational institutes, employers, and government in Thailand’s dual education is central to this study.

This study employs a documentary study, a survey, in-depth interviews, and responses from a focus group from technical and vocational institutes, employers, and the government.

This study found growing interest among technical and vocational institutes, employers, parents, and students in dual education. Within the tripartite system framework, the nine essential factors to improve the capacity of Thailand’s dual education system are: the technical and vocational institutes, curriculum, in-school teachers, accredited qualification, students, employers, in-company trainers, government policy, and government and related agencies. The government, companies, and technical and vocational institutes must collaborate for mutual trust and benefit while ensuring the quality of dual education programs.

This study is the first to examine the status and development of dual education in Thailand through the collaboration of key players. This study reflects the challenges of a major developing country in developing a dual education system, which other countries might face.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

This study aims to identify the key indicators for quality enhancement in an educational institute which affect student’s outcome in terms of employability and entrepreneurship. These indicators can be used for improving the quality of engineering institutions imparting technical education.

Review of conceptual and empirical literature has been done to establish a linkage between institutional factors and quality output. The paper further identifies existing quality gaps in engineering education that make their students misfit to the requirements of market.

The relevant literature reviewed suggests that quality of technical institutions can be viewed form two perspectives: first, students’ achievement in the form of placements, entrepreneurial output, enrollment in higher studies and university ranks. Second, faculty research output in the form of publication in refereed journals, consultancy projects and patents. The study concludes by stating that when these two important stakeholders are provided with the infrastructural support and environment to showcase their skill, the quality of technical institutions improves automatically.

The study is conducted on technical institutions engaged in providing engineering education. This research can be extended to other disciplines.

The framework proposed in the study will help technical institutions in evaluating their service quality levels which will further help them in improving the same.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the relevant enablers and barriers related to technical education. It seeks to critically analyze the relationship amongst them so that policy makers can focus on relevant parameters to improve the service quality of technical education.

The present study employs the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach to model the crucial parameters of technical education. The parameters discussed are categorized under “enablers” and “barriers”. The enablers would help policy makers to improve and develop the curriculum of the technical education and the identifying barriers would help the decision maker to improve upon those variables.

The major findings of this study are to prioritize the strategic parameters in reducing the risks associated with technical education. The model also proposes a hierarchical structure classifying the parameters as drivers and enablers.

The study proposes a scientific way to model the enablers and barriers to become a progressive institution in the emerging era of globalization and modernization. This would help to prioritize the issues as the enablers and barriers are hierarchically structured and categorized.

The paper maps out a course of action and the adoption of the proposed framework would provide a competitive edge for India over others. Also, the various stakeholders would be satisfied, which would be beneficial for the system as a whole.

The application of ISM to the decision making process is the unique feature in the field of technical education in India. The integrated framework of policy related parameters would contribute towards overall growth and development.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of select technical higher education institutes of national importance in India. This helps to judge the efficiency and effectiveness of an institute to provide valuable insights on performance measurement and effectiveness not only to the respective institute but also to governmental agencies and policymakers.

The paper makes a comparative analysis across various educational institutes of repute. This paper looks at the performance of four technical higher education institutes of India. An integrated data envelopment analysis–analytic hierarchy processing (DEA–AHP) approach has been used to compare and evaluate the relative efficiencies in terms of input provided to the institute to produce outputs.

The results depict the performances of the four institutes over the period of five years and, in turn, help assess the increase or decrease in the performance of a particular institute in comparative assessment. The paper also helps identify the most efficient institute among the four institutes that have been compared, in terms of academic efficiency, research efficiency, teaching efficiency and consulting efficiency.

A study like this would furnish an insight into the performance of the select higher educational institutes. The findings can be useful for policymakers, educational planners and administrators in designing a system based on various criteria that can help improve the overall efficiency and decide about benchmarking and funding strategies.

This paper is an attempt toward defining, conceptualizing and measuring performance effectiveness of institutes of higher education in the Indian context. The effort at the integration of the methodologies (through comparison and DEA–AHP) has helped to provide insights that could not have been obtained through the use of the methods or techniques alone. The paper has helped identify critical strategic issues and parameters which when implemented would be useful for policymakers, educational planners and administrators in designing a system based on various criteria that can help improve the overall efficiency of educational institutes in higher education.

1. Documentation, library and book organizations (0) American Documentation Institute

The main purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of acquisition of knowledge on social skills and social values by trainers of institutes and coaches of industries in training of trainers (ToT) programmes. It has been ascertained that social skills and social values can and must be taught to apprentices to enhance their employability skills as well as to remove any barriers for upward mobility in their careers.

A four‐day ToT‐cum‐workshop was organized using “hands‐on” experiential outdoor learning activities with lots of interactions, discussions and reflections between participants and participants, and between participants and facilitators. A retrospective post‐ then‐pre‐evaluation design was employed to determine the amount of knowledge acquired by the participants using a four point Likert‐type statements. Using the Handbook of Social Skills and Social Values as a guide, eight core social skills and eight core social values that were relevant to NDTS were identified, emphasized and evaluated in the training programme.

The overall findings indicate that there was about +20 per cent increase in knowledge among the participants on social skills and social values after the training programme. These findings indicate that social skills and social values can be taught when participants show increases in knowledge on all the social skills and social values studied.

Trainers of institutes and coaches of industries can integrate social skills and social values in their technical curriculum to provide apprentices with the foundation of human and social competence required to be an effective workforce to face future challenges and global competition.

This paper provides evidence that social skills and social values can be taught through appropriate teaching/learning techniques as well as providing the right learning environment.

The reversion of Hong Kong to Mainland China has led to swift and major changes in the economic base, and a consequent change in the vocational education and training needed to support economic prosperity. To meet the requirements of the new environment, the Vocational Training Council is leading a restructuring of the seven technical institutes and two technical colleges of Hong Kong to become a new invigorated single organisation, the Institute of Vocational Education, with a revised structure, management culture and curriculum. Reports on interviews with the principals of the technical institutes. Explores their views on the planned changes and their approach to managing large‐scale change. Concludes that the process to date has largely avoided the destructive results of comprehensive change and has resulted in optimism for the future of vocational education in Hong Kong.