Quality Improvement in Adult Vocational Earning and Training: Transforming Skills for the Global Economy

Citation

(2009), "Quality Improvement in Adult Vocational Earning and Training: Transforming Skills for the Global Economy", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 17 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2009.04417dae.001

Quality Improvement in Adult Vocational Earning and Training: Transforming Skills for the Global Economy

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 17, Issue 4

Nick Perry and , David Sherlock,Kogan Page, 2008

Perry and Sherlock share their experience and learning as driving forces in the UK Adult Learning Inspectorate and subsequently as directors of an international quality-improvement consultancy. The book has implications for international, national and organizational vocational-education and training policy-makers and for educators, trainers and learners in general.

The authors guide the reader through the development of their own ideas and experience and identify the requirements for success in an increasingly global skills market.

Perry and Sherlock initially offer a solution, which they call “the transformational diamond”, to the challenges of attaining continuous improvement in learning. The main aspects of the diamond cover the aspiration to excellence, an assessment of one’s position on the path to excellence, assistance for weak but aspiring organizations and the accumulation of good practice.

This model is applied practically in later chapters. The authors advance the view that the transformational diamond is “a coherent, planned, comprehensive set of actions offered by one organization but conscious of the work of others”.

A new template, the quality-assessment framework for self-assessment and independent quality assessment, is described in relation to the value of qualifications, measuring added value, effective learning, equality and diversity, matching learning to learners, support for learning, assessing leadership and grading.

Aspects of assessment in terms of methods, credible observation and feedback are commented on and the uses of self-assessment and of data are contained in specific chapters. As the authors note: “There is no point in assessing quality if you do not act on the information gained.”

The pragmatic approach Perry and Sherlock adopted through their work at the Adult Learning Inspectorate is highlighted when they outline the introduction of the provider-development unit as a support mechanism to providers of technical and vocational education, learning and training. The reality of what this offered and the legacy it left are described.

In similar context, the building of a national quality movement incorporating cross-boundary networks, the development of shared learning materials and good practice and the provision of online information as a resource to all interested parties is further evidence of the practical approach taken in the book.

The final chapters cover persuading providers and learners to consider quality improvement as a key facet of learning and highlighting the importance of the transformational diamond in proving that such improvement is necessary. The last chapter explores adapting the transformational diamond to different organizations and international and cultural contexts.

The text provides an exhaustive account of a VET quality-improvement journey, complemented by the case studies of workplace-learning providers. The reader is left in little doubt that failure to address national skill needs within an expanding global economy is not an option.

Perry and Sherlock state: “This book is our return for the privileges we have received as inspectors. It codifies our ideas and relates them to the acute challenges to raise productivity – national, organizational and individual – which face every country seeking prosperity in an open global market...We offer ourselves as guides to anyone bold enough to innovate and experiment.”

The book identifies, in a reader-friendly and interesting way, successes and failures, challenges faced and those still to be addressed.

Reviewed by Alan Catell, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK.

A version of this review was originally published in Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 40, No. 5, 2008.