The concept of “competence” and how it is used in management education and development is now at the forefront of debate in the UK. A review of the current literature in the field is given and the issue of whether you can usefully identify and use “generic competencies” is raised. The author argues for a more pragmatic and context‐specific approach to competence based on current good practice. In doing so he also raises questions about the assumptions underlying any management development strategy and makes linkages with other well established learning methods used within the UK.

The concept of Reflective Practice has become one of the most influential professional development theories within teacher education over the last 30 years. However, the concept has been seen to be contested and problematical within the literature. The debate surrounding the value of such an individualised approach to professional development provides the context and focus for this article. In particular, it is argued that reflective thought cannot in itself provide a coherent conceptual basis for professional development and certainly is unable to do so within the initial years of vocational teacher education. The study is based upon a purposeful sample of 60 student teachers taken from five cohorts of teachers on a full-time pre-service vocational teacher education course for Further Education lecturers in Scotland. The research was qualitative in nature and primarily aimed at identifying critical incidents from the students' learning experience at college. The findings from the research indicate that there is no need to privilege reflective thought as a learning strategy in teacher education and that other more collective and discursive forms of professional practice are equally important in supporting novice teachers.

The paper provides an analysis of Core Skill policy and practice in the UK. The author presents a conceptual basis for re-thinking generic Core Skills within educational approaches in teaching and learning. The discussion looks at whether universal notions of generic skills are appropriate when considering post-compulsory pedagogic approaches to the design of the curriculum. The arguments are framed within wider cross‐disciplinary debates in linguistics, the psychology of work and education

The research sets out to identify the learning processes adopted by older workers in the hospitality and visitor attraction industry in Scotland, with a view to determining how employers may better support their education and training within enterprises. The study was undertaken as part of the ESRC project on 'sustaining the employability of older workers in the hospitality sector: personal learning strategies and cultures of learning. The data collection period was from 2008-2010 and focused on six case studies; three in hospitality and three visitor attraction centres. The conceptual framework of the research is based upon the simple yet important notion of experience and how this enhances the learning lives of older employees. It will be argued that the learning processes used by older employees are primarily recognisable as social practices, based upon the utilisation of existing knowledge and skills. The analysis suggests that organisations should be encouraged to avoid using a 'one size fits all' approach to education and training and, in the case of older workers, to make more use of their past work and life experiences in order to facilitate their own and others' learning.

The take‐up and completion rates for the level 4 N/SVQs in training and development over the period 1992‐1994 have been extremely disappointing. If these figures are representative of other higher level N/SVQs, then this gives major cause for concern over the proposed extension of the NVQ framework at higher levels. Argues that there is an urgent need for research into the take‐up and completion rates for other level 4 and 5 awards. Finally, a major obstacle to improving the quality of N/SVQ provision is the lack of data available at award level in England and Wales to determine the success or otherwise of particular NVQs . In Scotland the position is even more serious as no data are published on the performance of SVQs at framework or award level.