INTRODUCTION
Desmond Keegan
Distance Education International
Chapter 1
Orientation

The Voctade study is a survey and analysis of a whole sector of vocational education and training (VET) in the European Union (European Union).

The sector is distance training - the provision of VET at a distance.

Volume 1 contains the surveys , volume 2 the analyses, volume 3 certification and evaluation of VET at a distance, Volume 4 transferability and database design, volume 5 sketch of a virtual institute to continue to collect the data, in addition to conclusions and recommendations.

Volume 1 contains the surveys and the data collected by the study. This data is presented in the four categories established by the Voctade study as a typology of the sector:

A scientific definition of the sector giving justification of the four categories in the typology, and further analyses are contained in Volume 2.

A general description of the field of distance training, cited from an introductory brochure of the Open University of the United Kingdom, is presented here:

The characteristic feature of all Open University teaching is that it is at a distance; the courses come to the students in their own homes or, sometimes, places of work.

Courses are carefully designed to meet the needs of home-based students. At the heart of most courses are a series of specially produced text-books (known as 'units' within the OU). These are linked in most cases to other materials: radio and television programmes, audio and video tapes, home experiment kits and computer software.

Although students learn at home, there is plenty of support and human contact available. All registered students have a local tutor and councillor, whom they can meet along with fellow students at one of the network of some 293 study centres throughout the UK. Elsewhere in Europe similar arrangements are being made where there are sufficient numbers of students.

Students also meet at the residential schools which are an integral part of many OU courses. Every undergraduate student must attend at least one summer school, usually lasting a week; these are held on the campuses of other universities during their long vacation. Many management courses include weekend residential schools.

The other institutional providers who are studied in this report share this general presentation of the field of distance education but have their own unique didactical and administrative solutions to the challenge of training at a distance.

To contribute to the development of knowledge in the field of vocational training at a distance in the European Union the Voctade report surveys this provision in these ways: