Digital competence and professional development of vocational education and training teachers in Queensland

Teaching with digital technologies is essential to the development of 21st century students’ graduate capabilities. However, relatively little is known about the extent to which Queensland VET teachers engage with digitally-enhanced teaching, or have the capacity to do so. Using a mixed methods approach, this thesis investigated the current digital teaching capacities of VET teachers and how current professional development opportunities are helping to address their learning needs.

Tensões entre as concepções e as políticas públicas de Educação Profissional em Saúde de nível médio no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul

A presente tese parte das questões relativas às tensões políticas/organizativas ou de concepção, existentes historicamente entre a saúde e a educação, referentes à Educação Profissional em Saúde; busca responder até que ponto as políticas educacionais respondem às necessidades de formação dos trabalhadores técnicos da saúde no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, como também de que forma a autonomia estadual repercute sobre as políticas de saúde e de educação na área da educação profissional em saúde, visto que o processo de descentralização se dá de forma distinta nestes dois campos. O objetivo geral do estudo foi apreender as tensões de natureza conceptual, política e legal, historicamente construídas, na relação entre as necessidades de formação técnica em saúde e as políticas educacionais, identificando implicações sobre a regulação da Educação Profissional em Saúde no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Esta tese sustenta-se no materialismo histórico como teoria e método. Parte das concepções marxianas sobre o trabalho constituído das relações sociais em diferentes épocas históricas, da educação formal como parte da totalidade dos processos sociais e do Estado como um complexo de relações que materializa o modo de produção capitalista da sociedade. Estas concepções teóricas subsidiaram a revisão da literatura sobre a organização do trabalho em saúde e as políticas públicas de formação dos trabalhadores do nível médio na área da saúde. O caminho metodológico percorrido partiu da análise de documentos legais e escuta dos agentes formuladores das políticas de Educação Profissional em Saúde, membros dos Conselhos de Saúde e de Educação do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Os resultados mostraram que as políticas de Educação Profissional, tanto do setor saúde como da educação, são ainda transversalizadas pela dinâmica da sociedade do capital, onde o Estado alinha-se na defesa dos interesses do setor privado, tanto na prestação de serviços, como na formação dos trabalhadores de saúde. Foi confirmada a hipótese de que as contradições dos campos da saúde e da educação se refletem nas políticas públicas, dificultando a transformação dos modelos de atenção à saúde e de formação dos trabalhadores do nível médio. A superação destas dificuldades poderá ser alcançada a partir de propostas de políticas públicas integradas entre os campos da saúde e da educação, sustentadas na reflexão teórica, no sentido da integração entre trabalho e ensino, para a formação dos trabalhadores de saúde do nível médio.

Vocational education and fisheries

Vocational courses in fisheries are offered in 4 states in India. The technologies in fisheries developed offer good scope for vocational training for self employment. There is an urgent need to have radical revision of the course content to make the students vocationally competent.

Vocational education for the development of knowledge system in fisheries sector

The paper aims to give the concept and functional approach of knowledge system with reference to the fisheries sector. The background and strategies to develop knowledge workers by translating the concept of knowledge system are presented. The job opportunities given in the paper strengthen the need of the development of knowledge workers through vocational education and training. The Vocational Education Programme in the backdrop can be effective both in the formal system of education through different models suggested and through the non-formal system. The modular courses varying from 50 hours and 2-3 weeks to 6 months or one year can be introduced in the formal system as pre-vocational modules (50-h duration) in IX-X classes in vocational institutions, and the non-governmental organizations/Krishi Vigyan Kendras/Indian Council of Agricultural Research may offer occupation-based modules (2-3 weeks to 6 months). The strategic approach for the development of knowledge system highlighting various issues is also suggested.

Human activities and interests within and around lakes of the Victoria and Kyoga basin and their consequences to sustainable fish production

Of all the great lakes, Lake Victoria has the highest population concentration on its fringes. This has resulted into serious human impacts on the ecosystem through intense agricultural activities (cultivation, livestock and over fishing), sporadic settlements, urbanization and industrial establishments. The consequences have been loss of animals and plant life, deforestation and general land degradation, pollution, loss of water quality and clean air. Aquatic life has become endangered and less guaranteeing to continued fish production. Awareness workshops and general talks have been done to a few selected communities by the lakes landing sites and in the catchment area to mitigate the deteriorating environmental conditions. Naturally the situation calls for reversal to the increasing stress of the ecosystem. As a result, every water body surveyed put forward some mitigation suggestions

Pretty good governance: balancing policy drivers and stakeholder interests in developing fisheries ecosystem plans

The central research question that this thesis addresses is whether there is a significant gap between fishery stakeholder values and the principles and policy goals implicit in an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM). The implications of such a gap for fisheries governance are explored. Furthermore an assessment is made of what may be practically achievable in the implementation of an EAFM in fisheries in general and in a case study fishery in particular. The research was mainly focused on a particular case study, the Celtic Sea Herring fishery and its management committee, the Celtic Sea Herring Management Advisory Committee (CSHMAC). The Celtic Sea Herring fishery exhibits many aspects of an EAFM and the fish stock has successfully recovered to healthy levels in the past 5 years. However there are increasing levels of governance related conflict within the fishery which threaten the future sustainability of the stock. Previous research on EAFM governance has tended to focus either on higher levels of EAFM governance or on individual behaviour but very little research has attempted to link the two spheres or explore the relationship between them. Two main themes within this study aimed to address this gap. The first was what role governance could play in facilitating EAFM implementation. The second theme concerned the degree of convergence between high-level EAFM goals and stakeholder values. The first method applied was governance benchmarking to analyse systemic risks to EAFM implementation. This found that there are no real EU or national level policies which provide stakeholders or managers with clear targets for EAFM implementation. The second method applied was the use of cognitive mapping to explore stakeholders understandings of the main ecological, economic and institutional driving forces in the Celtic Sea Herring fishery. The main finding from this was that a long-term outlook can and has been incentivised through a combination of policy drivers and participatory management. However the fundamental principle of EAFM, accounting for ecosystem linkages rather than target stocks was not reflected in stakeholders cognitive maps. This was confirmed in a prioritisation of stakeholders management priorities using Analytic Hierarchy Process which found that the overriding concern is for protection of target stock status but that wider ecosystem health was not a priority for most management participants. The conclusion reached is that moving to sustainable fisheries may be a more complex process than envisioned in much of the literature and may consist of two phases. The first phase is a transition to a long-term but still target stock focused approach. This achievable transition is mainly a strategic change, which can be incentivised by policies and supported by stakeholders. In the Celtic Sea Herring fishery, and an increasing number of global and European fisheries, such transitions have contributed to successful stock recoveries. The second phase however, implementation of an ecosystem approach, may present a greater challenge in terms of governability, as this research highlights some fundamental conflicts between stakeholder perceptions and values and those inherent in an EAFM. This phase may involve the setting aside of fish for non-valued ecosystem elements and will require either a pronounced mind-set and value change or some strong top-down policy incentives in order to succeed. Fisheries governance frameworks will need to carefully explore the most effective balance between such endogenous and exogenous solutions. This finding of low prioritisation of wider ecosystem elements has implications for rights based management within an ecosystem approach, regardless of whether those rights are individual or collective.

Estoppel and the interests of the prospective beneficiary

Reviews case law concerning proprietary and testamentary estoppel. Examines two cases in which an elderly person made certain comments and encouraged an understanding between themselves and the claimants, that on death properties would be left to them, but where the requisite legal formalities were not undertaken. Illustrates the contrasting courts' approach, once estoppel has been established, in finding the appropriate remedy to satisfy and considers the challenges faced by the courts in differentiating between constructive trust and proprietary estoppel. [From Legal Journals Index]