CODE | ACA2006 | ||||||||||||
TITLE | Employability, Adult Education, Training and Development | ||||||||||||
UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||||||
ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||||||
DEPARTMENT | Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education | ||||||||||||
DESCRIPTION | This study-unit will discuss employability, education, and training in a context of economic (management, wages, commodification, etc.), political (state and bureaucracy, class consciousness, etc.) and cultural (social reproduction, hegemony, etc.) relations. Within a historical timeline that departs from the post-war period to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, attention will be given to the labour market and agendas of worker formation, and related aspects. The European Union and its master narratives and initiatives will be critically analyzed, with reference to impacts on member-states (welfare-to-workfare) and the training of workers (skills agendas, VET, etc). Study-Unit Aims: This study-unit aims to to provide students with knowledge, understanding and skills required to: 1. Locate the relevance of critical concepts and theories tackling commodification, social reproduction, hegemony, class consciousness to recent past (post-war) and concurrent developments related to employability, education and training; 2. Critically engage with master narratives implied in employability education and training policies (EU and national); and 3. Critically engage with employability, education, and training initiatives in post-war, EU and concurrent (globalised, digitised, COVID-19-impacted) contexts. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: 1. Critically discuss relevant theories and concepts related to employability, education, and training; 2. Identify impacts of master narratives and initiatives on specified contexts, e.g., EU member-states; and 3. Discuss case studies of education and training initiatives with reference to economic, political and cultural dynamics at play. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: 1. Analyze economic, political and cultural dynamics affecting / intersecting with employability, education and training; 2. Evaluate concrete developments and specific events within the historical time frame set for the study-unit; and 3. Evaluate specified education and training programmes with reference to the kind of employability, education and training outcomes targeted and achieved. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Heikkinen, A. (2006) Manufacturing the European in education and training. In M. Kuhn, & R. S. Sultana (Eds.). Homo sapiens Europaeus? Creating the European learning citizen (pp. 105-130). New York: Peter Lang. - Jessop, B. (Ed.) (2003). Postfordism and the State. In A. Amin (Ed.) Postfordism. A reader (pp. 251-279), Oxford UK: Blackwell. - Vella, M. (2012) Forgetting Industry: The scarce and selective visibility of Malta’s industrial experience in the field of vision of Maltese sociology. In J. Chircop (Ed.), Revisiting labour history (pp. 175-254), Malta: Horizons. Supplementary Readings: - Jessop, B. (2016). The State: Past, present, future. Cambridge, UK: Polity. - Kuhn, M. (2007). Inside global learning societies – the war of ideas of the good world in the global battle of cultures. In M. Kuhn (Ed.). New society models for a new millennium: The learning society in Europe and beyond (pp. 11-44). New York: Peter Lang. - Noble, D.F. (2002) Technology and the Commodification of Higher Education. In Monthly Review. (Open access: https://monthlyreview.org/2002/03/01/technology-and-the-commodification-of-higher-education/) - Piore, M. J., & Sabel, C. F. (1984). The second industrial divide: Possibilities for prosperity. New York: Basic Books. |
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STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Independent Study | ||||||||||||
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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LECTURER/S | Maria M. Brown (Co-ord.) Amanda Ciantar Joseph Gravina |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |