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This research is an attempt to explore what constitutes effectiveness (in managerial and pedagogic terms) of NGOs' intervention in vocational education (VE) for employment and empowerment of vulnerable young people in the Cambodian urban context. The Thesis starts with the real-life issues pertaining to the educational, economic and socio-cultural vulnerability of young people in Cambodia; and the latter in turn has led to greater NGO intervention in vocational education as an alternative response to the ineffective government there. The questions about the unknown managerial and pedagogic components of effectiveness are answered and discussed by virtue of a mainly qualitative, multiple-case study of 9 NGOs located in 4 cities. Accordingly, the key managerial and pedagogic constituents are explored and then conceptualised in the form of 'Dynamic Concept Analysis' (DCA) modeling. Through this analysis, an effective as well as context-appropriate NGOs' intervention is theorised further. Overall, I argue that the growth of the Cambodian garment industry and tourism may improve the employment and empowerment of impoverished urban young people. This can be made possible if pedagogy is tailor-made to match education with the demands of the labour market, supporting the process of students' empowerment. The idea is to provide opportunities to practice power and allow power spontaneously to emerge in a cooperative and inclusive environment. The possibility of their being able to benefit from national economic growth could be maximised if NGOs play a good managerial role. Having carefully considered the idea of linking education with employment, NGOs can mobilise the necessary resources and build up the many connections required in order to help vulnerable young people overcome the socio-cultural and administrative barriers that block their way to employment and empowerment.

This thesis is concerned with the educational response to the concept of the 'knowledge economy'. The thesis argues that: ri this concept, which originated in social and management theory, has been framed in terms of the Cartesian conception of the 'two worlds of knowledge': knowledge of natural and social structures and everyday knowledge; u these two worlds have been perpetuated in educational policy, for example, in curricula through a strong emphasis on 'knowledge' and 'skifis' and in pedagogy through the development of 'pedagogies of reflection'. Consequently, educational policy has: u missed that the knowledge economy is making the interdependence between the two worlds of knowledge more explicit in economic and cultural activity; u failed to appreciate that this development presupposes 'pedagogies' that support to overcome the two worlds of knowledge to respond to the challenges posed by the knowledge economy. The thesis argues that Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (hereafter CHAT) provides a conceptual framework for going beyond the two worlds of knowledge in social and management theory as well as in educational research, policy and practice. It explores this claim by arguing that Vygotsky's concept of mediation and its extension and elaboration by a number of post-Vygotskians and neo-Hegelians introduces a way of conceiving the relation between activity, thought, language and mind which does not split mind from world. It then uses this reformulation of the conceptual of mediation as a foundation to formulate a pedagogy of mediated activity which it maintains is the basis of overcoming the two worlds of knowledge and responding to the challenge posed by the knowledge economy.

This thesis, positioned in the interface of innovation research and comparative education, studies innovation in European vocational education and training in three highly innovative countries: England, Finland and Germany. The research focuses on innovation in inter-organisational networks of VET with local, regional, national and European reach. The qualitative research is based on a theoretical framework including practitioner-driven innovation and interorganisational innovation, and empirical research from the three countries. The research adopts a phenomenographic method to study perceptions of VET professionals (directors, teachers, international coordinators) involved in interorganisational networks. The data was collected through in-depth interviews. The aim is to look at how participation in inter-organisational networks is perceived to support innovation in VET in the three European countries. The findings of the comparative research indicate that innovation is perceived to be emerging in largely convergent ways in inter-organisational networks of VET in the three European countries. The thesis concludes that the outer-driven innovation and participation of VET organisations and practitioners in interorganisational network learning enhances innovation in VET with, for example, improved efficiency of VET provision, specialisation, new training models, internationalisation and professional development. While noting the limitations of the research, the thesis suggests that VET may play a stronger role in innovation and learning in global learning economies than has thus far been discussed. Since the participation of practitioners in inter-organisational network learning in VET is perceived to promote innovation in VET, the thesis recommends that educational policies, both national and European, should facilitate and support long-term inter-organisational network learning and professional development for VET organisations. The research findings may benefit academic researchers of innovation in education and training, as well as policy-makers and practitioners, who can avail themselves of the findings and recommendations of the research in Europe and beyond. [292 words]

This study explores the making of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in South Africa between 1985 and 2003 and asks how a policy which represented a national consensus on transforming education and training failed to become hegemonic when the new state established itself. Informed by involvement in these events, the thesis draws on data gathered from documents and interviews with over 70 participants engaged in making the NQF. Using a conceptual vocabulary derived from Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory the study undertakes an analysis of the way social antagonisms were constructed and political frontiers drawn. Through this taxonomy it seeks to explain how discourses associated with the NQF were constructed, contested and changed. Working with policy-makers' own accounts of their experiences the study explores the interrelationships between policy discourses, policy-makers' subjectivities and the nature of their agency. The thesis argues that the emergence and development of the NQF can be explained in relation to shifting hegemonic practices that sought to organise social relations in the field of education and training. The NQF is portrayed as a feature of the political transition, linked to practices concerned with securing a democratic market economy, and suturing the social dislocation brought about by the end of apartheid. The analysis runs that there has been a failure to maintain hegemony and that a rupture has occurred along a fault line within the South African state between practices building a corporatist state and those constructing a strong developmental state. In the process policy-makers have negotiated subjectivities within complex and shifting discursive networks.

This EdD thesis compares and contrasts apprenticeships for 16-18 year aids as an element of the vocational education and training system in England, Finland and France. It is an exploratory study that contributes to the debate on the convergence and divergence of education and training systems in Europe in terms of policy, practice and research. The motivation for the study has arisen from the researcher's experience as a policy practitioner with significant experience and exposure to a number of different education systems. England, Finland and France are chosen as the cases for the study based on a typology of European education and training systems. Whilst apprenticeship is not a mainstream pathway for young people in these countries, the respective governments nevertheless continue to renew their commitment to promoting apprenticeships as a mode of initial vocational education and training, as well as a mode of continuing vocational education and training. The thesis draws on published academic research identified through systematic reviews of literature in English, Finnish and French, complemented by interviews with expert researchers on the subject in each of the countries. The research literatures and the interview transcripts are analysed using thematic analysis. The thesis shows that the role and meaning of apprenticeship as a form of initial vocational education and training is different in the three countries. This divergence arises from the differing contexts in which apprenticeship occurs and its place within the wider education systems in the three countries. The differing institutional frameworks for apprenticeship, and variation in the wider societal values placed on education and training also have a role to play. There is some evidence of convergence in terms of the policy rhetoric of apprenticeship, but there are significant differences in the conceptualisation of apprenticeship research in the three countries. The study offers a number of recommendations for policy and practice emphasising that understanding the original context is crucial to successful apprenticeship policy and practice. The thesis also suggests that further research on apprenticeship should seek to extend the boundaries of the field by broadening the choice of countries studied and expanding the concepts of validity that are used in comparative research.

The thesis focusses on out-of-school youths in Lusaka, Zambia, and assesses the value of different types of non-formal training in the transition from school to work. This value is considered at two levels: at the macro-level it concerns the economic importance of such forms of skill acquisition and their role in a wider process of of socio-economic diffe~entiation. At the micro-level the thesis studies the actual process of social selection into non-formal training and examines its contribution to personal social and occupational mobility. Two types of non-formal training are considered: apprenticeship in small informal sector workshops and Vocational Skills Training Centres, the latter having been established mostly by voluntary agencies as a special arrangement for skill acquisition by school leavers. The thesis shows how in Lusaka economic difficulties have further encouraged labour market segementation and socio-economic differentiation. Educational and training provisions, which strongly influence access to different types of work, are becoming more stratified, the less valuable channels being entered disproportionately by youth of lower social origin. In the wake of the economic recession non-formal training arrangements have gained some importance to urban out-of-school youths as alternative means by which entry into formal sector wage-employment is attempted. The result of these developments have been that both types of training have changed over time, though in different ways. The Skills Training Centres became more formalised, enabling many participants to enter moderately secure wage-employment in smaller formal sector enterprises. Apprenticeship, on the other hand, lost much of its value as a preparation for entrepreneurship, becoming a mechanism for producers to attract youths as semi wageworkers to their workshops. This different value in the labour market can be set against a different pattern of entry into these forms of training: while both only gain attention by youths after other routes of advancement have been exhausted, those youths who end in apprenticeship tend to be of poorer social origin, while Skills Training Centres tend to be monopolised by middle class youths. It can be observed that non-formal training in the Lusaka case has come to foster social reproduction rather than to act as a second-chance opportunity for social mobility. Nevertheless, the thesis also shows that mobility is still possible in individual cases as youths can often draw upon valuable social resources through their personal network.

This research is about one of the most vulnerable groups who have always been a part of the global migration flow – unaccompanied asylum seeking children and young people. They flee their home countries and cross international boundaries in the hope of seeking refuge in safer, more peaceful and promising lands elsewhere. Whether their flight is voluntary or involuntary, their reason for leaving their home is influenced by many factors: predominantly, war, violence, persecution, or the hopelessness of failed and fragile states. Their arrival brings many challenges to host countries in terms of receiving, protecting, assisting, and finding durable solutions. The focus of this study was the UK's position as a host country, and how it had assisted unaccompanied asylum seeking children to find lasting solutions. It aimed to explore how best the country could shape their futures by implementing a better educational process that would be specifically designed to improve their employability and smooth their entry into the labour market and society. The main objective of the study was to examine the availability, nature and effectiveness of current educational and vocational intervention programmes designed for improving the children's future employability. It also examined the present situation of the system of educational and vocational training provision, and the participants' perceptions of the impact of education and employment on social integration. This qualitative study comprised two components; a systematic review of the research on educational and vocational intervention programmes, and the main component, the field research. The field research was conducted in different locations in three regions in England, and in one region in Scotland. The data was collected by in-depth semi structured interviews with a sample of thirty-eight professionals and fifteen male and female young unaccompanied asylum seekers. The children and young people were between sixteen and twenty-two years of age and represented ten countries. The findings of the field research were analysed by the constant comparative method, and the study has yielded a considerable amount of rich information that has addressed all the research questions. As for the key finding, the current system has failed to uphold the principle of serving the best interests of unaccompanied children and young people in relation to meeting their educational and vocational needs. This needs to be rectified if they are to integrate successfully them into the labour market in the UK (or in the country of origin in the event of repatriation).

In line with current trends in education both locally and abroad, the Institute of Vocational of Education (IVE) has embarked on a Total Quality Improvement programme. The IVE (Tsing Yi) campus was one of the first to embrace this as it already had an established infrastructure for quality assurance which pre-dated this programme. The purpose of this research is to study the academic quality culture in the IVE (Tsing Yi campus), and to determine factors that work for and against the implementation of Total Quality Improvement in a vocational education setting. The research was carried out through a triangulation process involving documentary analysis, questionnaire surveys, and interviews. To draw up an academic quality profile of the IVE (Tsing Yi campus), these areas were studied: staff values and beliefs in relation to TQM principles staff perception of the college's quality-related activities and mechanisms the structure and role, policies, practices and management of quality the extent to which the academic quality climate effectively helps to deliver quality courses and factors which can bring about a synergy between professionalism among staff and the current academic quality practices. Major strengths in the academic quality culture at IVE (Tsing Yi campus) include staffs professionalism and personal commitment to quality, as well as an existing infrastructure for quality assurance. Weaknesses include the existence of balkanisation in the campus, the absence of active leadership in quality issues, and a one-way communication pattern. To create a synergy between the quality culture, academic practices and mechanisms in the IVE (Tsing Yi campus), a TQM model has been proposed. Essentially, this involves creating a pre-condition for harnessing commitment and orchestrating changes, as well as allowing for better integration of staff.

This study explores the relation between upper secondary vocational education and social cohesion in times of economic crisis. Greece and England frame the specific context of research. I have set two research questions to investigate how vocational education is envisaged to support vocational students to find their place in life. The first concerns their inclusion in the labour market (as an aspect of the economy), and the second their inclusion in society (as distinct from the labour market). I am using the concepts of human capital and social capital as analytical lenses to address the research questions. This is an inductive study of perceptions of vocational education, as articulated in selected education policy documents and interviews with participant teachers. The first source of evidence includes six (sets of) state education policy documents produced over the period of 2003-2013, and the second semi-structured interviews with twenty-eight vocational teachers in total, equally distributed between the cases of Greece and England. Findings from the documentary analysis indicate that vocational education is directed towards strengthening human capital development through specialised preparation for immediate employment and the acquisition of a wide range of knowledge and skills, in an attempt to address the social cohesion challenges of economic disruption and youth unemployment. If successful development appears to be more a matter of collective effort in Greece, in England it would depend more on the individual student. Findings from the interview data show that participant teachers recognise the importance placed on human capital development and support the role of vocational education in the creation of social capital and social ties. Despite structural differences between Greece and England, vocational education is envisaged to foster social cohesion by assisting its students in the development of a sense of acceptance and belonging possibly to the detriment of excellence. Such findings invite further research.