From boom to recession, from volume to quality

The various connotations of quality of training

• Taina Saarinen Turun yliopisto http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5117-2756

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33336/aik.96903

Abstract

High quality of training is a goal on the importance of which there appears to be general consensus. A common vocabulary does not, however, mean that the people participating in the debate on quality of training are necessarily discussing the same issue. As a concept, quality is subject to several interpretations and its mean ing is influenced by the demands that various interest groups impose on it. Nowadays, the quality of training appears to be characterised by the imbalance between decreasing resources and increasing goals - an endeavour to achieve better results at less cost. The article looks at the various meanings that quality has. Quality can be the capacity of a research work to arouse interest and bring up new issues, the speedy completion of studies by students, the producing of adequate and appropriate vocational skills, the efficient employment of resources, and the amount leamed by students. Different conceptions of quality necessarily lead to different methods of assessing quality. Lately, we have seen placement in the working life as being one indicator of the success ( and even of the quality) of training. As a special case, the author examines getting a job as a criterium of the quality of university education.