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C A L L F O R P A P E R S

Special Issue of the Journal Education + Training (Emerald Group Publishing)
Topic: Authentic Assessment in Vocational Training

Aims and Scope

The special edition of Education + Training is motivated by the broadly identified skill shortage and the employability gap between educational institutes and industry, non-completion of apprenticeships, and health and safety concerns resulting from short training periods and inexperience in the early career stage; all of which offer significant indications of the need for improvement. These factors can be improved with ‘authentic assessment’ – the design and application of assessment tasks that closely mirror the real-life situations that students will one day find themselves in. Authentic assessment can also be used to replace dangerous or unsafe on-the-job training and be used to manage and develop worker skills over time.

As authentic assessment is a valuable but underutilised approach, this Special Issue of Education and Training asks: how can authentic assessment enhance vocational training? What pedagogical changes need to be made to reduce the skills gap with authentic assessment?

Particularly, we are interested in papers that address the following topics; however, other, related papers are also welcomed:

• Technology-enhanced skills training
• Health and safety enhancement in vocational settings
• Continuous professional development
• Workplace scenario simulation
• Balancing efficiency of training with effectiveness of outcomes
• Capturing real-world or system complexity in the classroom environment
• Stress and pressure with ‘extraordinary events’; i.e., those that are improbable but which may have significant impact on the organisation
• Gamification, serious games, and business games as aids to student engagement
• Authentic skills training assessment
• Continuous skills evaluation and management in an organisational context

Submission procedure

Submissions to Education + Training have to be done via ScholarOne Manuscripts, the online submission and peer review system. Registration and access is available at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/et.

Important Dates:
November 15, 2014 – submission deadline
December 15, 2014 – first round of reviews provided to authors
January 15, 2014 – deadline for submitting revisions of papers
February 1, 2015 – final decisions on acceptance of papers
February 15, 2015 – final camera ready papers due

Special Issue Editors:
Torsten Reiners, Curtin University, Australia (t.reiners@curtin.edu.au)
Lincoln C. Wood, Auckland University of Technology, Australia (lincoln.wood@aut.ac.nz)


Education and Training

Aims and Scope

Education + Training addresses the increasingly complex relationships between education, training and employment and the impact of these relationships on national and global labour markets. The journal gives specific consideration to young people, looking at how the transition from school/college to employment is achieved and how the nature of partnerships between the worlds of education and work continues to evolve.

The journal explores vocationalism in learning and efforts to address employability within the curriculum, together with coverage of innovative themes and initiatives within vocational education and training.

The journal is read by policy makers, educators and academics working in a wide range of fields including education, learning and skills development, enterprise and entrepreneurship education and training, induction and career development.

Coverage:
- Managing the transition from school/college to work
- New initiatives in post 16 vocational education and training
- Education-Business partnerships and collaboration
- Links between education and industry
- The graduate labour market
- Work experience and placements
- The recruitment, induction and development of school leavers and graduates
- Young person employability and career developemnt
- E learning in further and higher education
- Research news
- Reviews of recent publications