Standards, Competence and Knowledge: Initial Teacher Training and Business

Initial teacher training in England and Wales has undergone a number of reforms which have imposed greater central control on institutions and individual programs. The culmination of this process has been the introduction of a competence based model. In this paper the authors explore the factors which have led to the adoption of a competence based approach in many sectors of education and training. They describe how a Post Graduate Certificate in Education program has been developed to enable students to achieve competence through the establishment of links between education and business. They go onto consider the wider implications of this approach for teaching and learning. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.