NN38, February 2007
Technical and Vocational Skills Development
TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: A BRIEFING NOTE
By Kenneth King, Hong Kong and Edinburgh, Robert Palmer, Amman and Edinburgh
KeywordsTechnical and vocational skills development (TVSD), Skill modalities, Skills development, Enabling environment, Skills and poverty reduction
Summary
Technical and Vocational Skills Development (TVSD) is once again moving up the agendas of governments and of donor agencies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia, influenced by evidence of its key, transformative role in East Asia, including China, and its continuing importance in the Americas and in Europe. This article provides a brief background note on TVSD.
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The Rise, Fall and Rise again of Technical and Vocational Skills Development (TVSD)
Technical and Vocational Skills Development (TVSD) was a key sub-sector during the 1960s and early 1970s, and initiatives that had the objective of providing employable skills to ease school-leaver unemployment became popular in many countries in SSA. The 1980s saw structural adjustment and cost-sharing measures impact on the public provision of education/training. Rate of return studies undermined much external support for post-primary.
The World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien) of 1990 brought UPE back on the international agenda, and UPE was adopted as an international development target in 1996 and a Millennium Development Goal in 2000. TVSD was excluded from both targets (despite being mentioned in the World Declaration at Jomtien). Many donors made MDGs central to their education development priorities.
In the 2000s TVSD is back on the International Agenda. The Commission for Africa report, Millennium Project & Summit, new World Bank policies on secondary, higher & general education, and on skills development, and the 2007 World Development Report all argued that a holistic, integrated, inter-sectoral approach to education is crucial, including TVSD. DFID¡¯s 2006 briefing on ¡®secondary, vocational and higher¡¯ makes the same point. SWAPs from the mid-nineties exemplified these new priorities of supporting the whole education sector. Increasingly, the PRSPs will need to reflect this same comprehensive approach.
The very narrow if quantitatively successful focus of the 1990s on primary education has produced enormous pressures on the still very small secondary and vocational systems of many countries. Hence there is significant interest in TVSD among governments in Africa and S. Asia as they consider what happens after primary education. But the quality of these new generations of aspirants for post-primary education is causing very grave concern.
Technical and Vocational Skills Development in More and Less Dynamic Macro-economic Environments
The many benefits claimed for TVSD (e.g. higher productivity, readiness for technological change, openness to new forms of work organization, and the capacity to attract foreign direct investment) all depend on the quality of the skills acquired, and a dynamic environment in which they can be applied. The utilization and allocation of skills in a dynamic, expanding economy are fundamentally different from macroeconomic situations in which there is no growth, and poor governance. Among the most critical factors in such environments will clearly be the growth in opportunities for work and employment. And fair allocation of skills to work is dependent on good governance. In South Korea and China, there has been employment for TVSD graduates of almost all institutions; while in a stagnant economy like Sri Lanka, there may only be jobs for some of the very best students. Clearly, the economy counts.
But it is not just a question of getting the economy right and the skilled opportunities will follow; evidence from S. Korea and Hong Kong suggests that in a developmental state, future skills can be successfully planned for, even before there is a demand. This is very different from the political conviction that exposure to skills training can actually create jobs, regardless of the surrounding environment. This latter reasoning lies behind a whole series of short-term, youth training schemes, from Pakistan, to Philippines and from India to Ghana.
Skills for Poverty Reduction? Do the Poor Gain Access to Skill?
There is mounting evidence that the poor are not to be found in the majority of the pathways to skills development, with the exception of NGO non-profit programmes. In the longer term, the expansion of fee-free junior secondary, and of vocational training centres into rural and urban slum areas will begin to take care of this problem. In the short term, much more policy attention needs to be given to bursaries and merit-based pathways to skill for youth from poor families. By contrast, the vogue for market-led, demand-driven courses will actually exclude the poor.
Arguments for and against TVSD in its different modalities
Unlike general secondary school, there are many more locations and modalities for the delivery of TVSD. We shall examine, in some detail, the advantages and disadvantages of three of the main types of TVSD: public school-based technical education; public vocational training centres; and training in the informal/unregistered sector.
1. The vocationalisation of junior and senior secondary education, and other forms of publicly-funded school-based technical education
In support of school-based TVSD:
* Offer pre-employment orientation to employable skill; widespread in all OECD countries. * some subjects, e.g. commerce, no more costly than the regular academic curriculum; this light orientation to TVSD is very different from the strong orientation. * evidence that even the weak vocational orientation affects aspirations for different kinds of future work. * in OECD countries - numerous attempts to change the dead-end image of TVSD.
Challenges to school-based TVSD:
* Can be more expensive than general education. * labour market effectiveness questioned by World Bank since 1980s. * rate-of-return (ROR) studies: returns to general education higher (but methodological problems with ROR). * assumed skill-to-work link, but little firm evidence. * enrolment can be gender-biased. * concerned with getting qualifications; hence skewed towards theory-based learning. * vocational school fallacy. * problems with attempts to reduce the academic-vocational divide.
Comment
The transition of graduates to the labour market is going to be much easier when economies are growing, and job growth is sustained (e.g. South Korea, China, Mozambique). Deliberate mixes of light and intensive orientation might be a good policy response to a political demand for wholesale vocationalisation.
2. Publicly-provided Vocational Training Centres & Industrial Training Institutes
In support of public vocational training centres (VTCs) and institutes:
* In much of Latin America, VTCs have been supported by a training levy on industry; they have been relatively independent of government, close to industry, and they have maintained good quality provision. * provide qualifications that are recognized by industry and commerce; these are increasingly being incorporated in wider occupational standards, and can be competency-based and demand-driven. * effective in many countries precisely because they are not seen as a substitute for secondary education
Challenges to vocational training centres (VTCs) and institutes:
* In countries with weak institutional links to industry, VTCs are seen to supply graduates with courses that are not demanded by industry. * in such weak institutional environments, NQFs will be largely ineffective. * curriculum often traditional and supply-driven. * lack of financial independence or central government support * implications for updating equipment, instructors skills etc. * not necessarily physically or financially accessible to the poor. * weak links to informal sector.
Comment
As with school-based technical education, VET systems are much more in demand when economies are growing, and there are enabling industry and technology policies. VET reform, therefore, is not just about VET institutions, but about the economy, and systems of accountability and responsiveness.
3. Traditional Apprenticeship Training & Training in the Informal Sector
In support of traditional apprenticeship training:
* Relevant to the real world of work (& helps develop networks for aspiring entrepreneurs). * can, along with other inputs, contribute to enhancing the productivity of the informal sector. * often more effective than the pre-employment training. * ease of access (e.g. no formal entry qualifications) and more widespread than VTCs. * lower cost than VTCs.
Challenges to traditional apprenticeship training or training in the informal sector:
* Potential benefits often dependent on a range of additional inputs. * traditional technologies are perpetuated except in dynamic industrial environments. * no link with formal training systems. * difficulty of intervention. * great variety in the quality of both training and working conditions. * limited portability of skills. * still screening out of applicants from poorer families.
Comment
The most positive government influence on the informal sector and traditional apprenticeship thus far has been indirect, through popular access to primary and junior secondary education, and hence more educated trainees have entered the sector. A possible policy reaction to the new demands for formalisation of the sector would be seriously to review the wider legal, credit and macroeconomic environment of the sector and the most appropriate ministerial responsibility.
The Need to Create More Effective Monitoring Mechanisms for TVSD
A great deal more is known about some of these TVSD modalities than others. Donors and national governments need increasingly to monitor, assess and disseminate their research and consultancy insights on this complex but crucial sector. The Working Group for International Cooperation in Skills Development is one vehicle for just such knowledge-sharing. There is a crucial need for a better statistical base for TVET.
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This summary is based on a longer briefing note on Technical and Vocational Skills Development produced by the authors for DFID.
The DFID supports policies, programmes and projects to promote international development. DFID provided funds for this briefing note as part of that objective but the views and opinions expressed are those of the author alone.
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