M.A. (Human Resource Management) / Sufficient trained labour is necessary for the economical growth and development of the country, and artisan training is therefore a national priority. The Metal Industry is the largest contributor to apprentice training in South Africa. Continual technological development places a high demand on artisans, and that in turn requires intensive training. This has led to the need for candidates with strong mental abilities and aptitudes to meet the above-mentioned requirements. The selection and classification of apprentices who will be successful in their training and work is not an easy task, since the majority of apprentices are school leavers and do not have previous work experience. It is therefore necessary to assess their trainability and work potential by means of a psychometric test battery. The purpose of this study is to determine whether apprentices can then be classified into specific trades on the basis of their psychometric test results. Should this be possible, apprentices can be placed in specific trades according to their aptitudes, abilities and interests.

Governments around the world are calling for a revival of apprenticeship on a large scale, emphasizing the value of the one-on-one, human interaction between master and apprentice and the teaching involved in that interaction. Although a broader historical view of apprenticeship shares these ideas, certain prominent threads within recent educational research have done a great deal to deemphasize them. Some go so far as to overlook the master-apprentice relationship altogether, assert that masters simply do not exist, and claim that apprenticeship learning happens without any teaching at all. In response to these claims, the researcher took part in an autoethnographic case study, participating himself in a two-year apprenticeship under a master violinmaker. Analysis from the case suggests that the one-on-one master-apprentice relationship plays a key role in apprenticeship learning, that mastery is embodied in individuals rather than in communities alone, and that a master's teaching does in fact make a difference to an apprentice's learning.

While academic nursing programs teach the concepts and theory of providing care, these programs cannot provide sufficient experiential learning to prepare the nurse for all that might be faced in diverse clinical practice settings. As a result, each nurse faces transition to practice hardships with the first nursing role and again each time the clinical setting changes. The Specialty Nurse Residency intervention offers support and instruction during the crucial transition period. Efficacy of the intervention is evaluated based on data analysis from pre and post-intervention survey responses. This quantitative, descriptive study solicits feedback from experienced staff to answer the question: Are the positive outcomes of the Specialty Nurse Residency program reproducible in specialty units other than the Burn ICU as evidenced by preceptor, manager and educator feedback before and after program implementation? The intervention engages new-to-specialty nurses within an evidence-based support system that validates competence and development of clinical reasoning skills. Preceptor development and support are key elements of intervention and program delivery, as these crucial staff members safeguard program and learner success. / Doctorate of Nursing Practice

Commentary on skilled trades occupations in Canada has been framed by two main paradigms: The dominant policy discourse has applied human capital theory to the dynamics of the skilled labour supply, often concentrating on intractable “problems” such as low apprenticeship participation and completion rates and an extreme gender imbalance in the trades. Sociological research has portrayed trades occupations as positions of structurally reproduced social disadvantage. This study adopts an alternate, neo-Weberian framework centred on the theory of economic social action. Social structure is treated in strictly nominalistic terms, and social action is rooted in the interest-oriented behaviour of socially embedded individuals. The study, undertaken in a large public-sector shipyard, involved both a pen-and-paper survey (N=509) of skilled trades workers and ten focus group interviews with 49 respondents from labour and management. The research questions addressed indicators of structural (dis)advantage and reproduction, as well as the specific mechanisms of social action operating within the study environment. The population shows a very distinct profile in terms of gender, ethnicity, and educational investment. Data on earnings, job security, and working conditions dispel any suspicion of economic disadvantage. Although a high proportion of incumbents have family connections to the skilled trades, an analysis of their siblings’ occupations refutes the supposition of structural determinism through the family. Instead, it is argued that both the social profile of the workforce and the high density of family and network connections reflect the use of “bridging” and “bonding” social capital strategies by study population members. The operative mechanisms include formal elements of the organization’s hiring practices, as well as institutionalized group norms and workplace culture. Through a “separatist” discourse that invokes notions of both “trade stigma” and “trade pride,” incumbents ascribe a particular set of cognitive and moral attributes to trades workers, which also contribute to defining the formal and informal membership requirements for their occupations. By approaching occupations as sites of economic social action, this research concludes that some of the intractable “problems” in Canada’s apprenticeable trades reflect individual behaviours that are enabled and incited by institutional features integral to the present skilled trades system.

Commentary on skilled trades occupations in Canada has been framed by two main paradigms: The dominant policy discourse has applied human capital theory to the dynamics of the skilled labour supply, often concentrating on intractable “problems” such as low apprenticeship participation and completion rates and an extreme gender imbalance in the trades. Sociological research has portrayed trades occupations as positions of structurally reproduced social disadvantage. This study adopts an alternate, neo-Weberian framework centred on the theory of economic social action. Social structure is treated in strictly nominalistic terms, and social action is rooted in the interest-oriented behaviour of socially embedded individuals. The study, undertaken in a large public-sector shipyard, involved both a pen-and-paper survey (N=509) of skilled trades workers and ten focus group interviews with 49 respondents from labour and management. The research questions addressed indicators of structural (dis)advantage and reproduction, as well as the specific mechanisms of social action operating within the study environment. The population shows a very distinct profile in terms of gender, ethnicity, and educational investment. Data on earnings, job security, and working conditions dispel any suspicion of economic disadvantage. Although a high proportion of incumbents have family connections to the skilled trades, an analysis of their siblings’ occupations refutes the supposition of structural determinism through the family. Instead, it is argued that both the social profile of the workforce and the high density of family and network connections reflect the use of “bridging” and “bonding” social capital strategies by study population members. The operative mechanisms include formal elements of the organization’s hiring practices, as well as institutionalized group norms and workplace culture. Through a “separatist” discourse that invokes notions of both “trade stigma” and “trade pride,” incumbents ascribe a particular set of cognitive and moral attributes to trades workers, which also contribute to defining the formal and informal membership requirements for their occupations. By approaching occupations as sites of economic social action, this research concludes that some of the intractable “problems” in Canada’s apprenticeable trades reflect individual behaviours that are enabled and incited by institutional features integral to the present skilled trades system.

This research set out to explore cognitive processes involved in learning among help desk consultants, both apprentices and experts.

Within educational research, postsecondary vocational education receives relatively little attention; within this sector, trades education is studied even less frequently. This research sought to address this gap through exploring the transition of master tradespeople who have completed a first apprenticeship in their trade and who then undertake a second apprenticeship as trades teachers. The research question explored: the motivation for career change; pre-existing competencies brought to the role of teaching; the methods used to learn to teach; negotiation of a new vocational identity; and sources of satisfaction in the teaching role. Using a constructivist paradigm, this qualitative-dominant crossover sequential mixed methods study surveyed trades teachers via a newly created instrument, distributed electronically to three Western Canadian polytechnic institutions. In addition to analysis of the full data set, the survey data were divided by respondents’ years of teaching to look for possible changes with experience. A summary was shared with survey participants who were willing to participate in follow-up discussions. Interpretation panel meetings were held with these volunteers; discussions were transcribed and analyzed for themes, comparing the results of this qualitative data set to that of the quantitative survey results. As the qualitative and quantitative data were combined, the following key insights about this group emerged. Tradespeople moving to trades teaching are motivated primarily by two factors. They take pride in their trade and want to see the craft continue through teaching and mentoring apprentices on a full-time basis. Secondly, they seek an improved work-life balance through teaching and will accept lower remuneration as a teacher in order to have more time for family and life outside of work. Tradespeople bring a strong sense of having been a teacher, as an aspect of being a journeyperson, to the role of trades teacher. They are self-reflective and wish to improve as teachers. They rate themselves as stronger in the general abilities, attitudes and traits associated with teaching than in pedagogical knowledge and skills competencies, but learn in these areas to gain confidence in their overall teaching competency over time. In learning to be a teacher, trades teachers prefer to replicate the informal learning methods of the apprenticeship model: mentorship, discussions, self-study, and trial and error. They reject overly-formal or academic training as impractical, not helpful toward improving teaching, and an expression of the lower status accorded to trades teaching within higher education. The transition from tradesperson to trades teacher is not a distinct change or linear process. It is an evolution, growing from the role of teacher imbedded within journeyperson, and subsuming the trades knowledge gained through apprenticeship and practice, to become a new identity that makes one more than a teacher, more than a tradesperson, but rather a teacher of the trade. Trades teachers are satisfied with their work. They find satisfaction primarily through interactions with students and through relationships with colleagues. Dissatisfaction comes from time constraints and from a sense of not being valued within the institution.

This research set out to explore cognitive processes involved in learning among help desk consultants, both apprentices and experts.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Kinesiology, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (Mar. 30, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p.172-174). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-174).