NN38, February 2007
Technical and Vocational Skills Development
REVIEWING TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING
By David Atchoarena, IIEP, Paris
KeywordsTVET, overview, economic growth, technological change, work
Summary
Worldwide, many governments are renewing efforts to promote technical and vocational education and training (TVET). This article provides a comprehensive overview of TVET, discussing both the dominant models for organising vocational education and training and TVET policies in the context of economic growth, technological change, and the transformation of the nature of work.
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The future of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is generating heated debate nearly everywhere in the world. Of course this concern is not new, but since the early nineties the collapse of planned economies and the emergence of globalization have put it at the centre of the policy debate on unemployment, modernization, competitiveness, and the struggle against poverty and exclusion. As a result, vocational education reform constitutes a vibrant area of public policy.
Worldwide, many governments are renewing efforts to promote vocational education. The belief that skill formation enhances productivity and sustains competitiveness in the global economy has been a strong motive. The rhetoric about the knowledge economy has further reinforced this trend. As a result, today the reform process in technical and vocational education and training is in motion in many countries, regardless of development and income levels.
But government intervention is also often motivated by other factors such as providing a second chance to secondary school drop-outs, offering an alternative to university education or fighting against youth unemployment and poverty. This great diversity of objectives makes vocational education policies complex to implement and assess.
An overview of TVET systems around the world reveals that the structure of the education system remains very diversified, both regarding the relative size and the organisation of vocational education in relation to the school system. Many countries combine vocational schools with dual forms training such as apprenticeship. Amid such diversity the reforms remain very much context specific.
In the wave of public sector reforms, many governments have decided to reshape vocational education institutions in order to make them more efficient and effective. In technical and vocational education, as in other fields, governments need to become pro-active and this implies close links with social partners in order to define qualifications and how to run the system. It also calls for cultivating flexibility and opening-up new learning pathways. Hence, many countries are in the process of adopting reforms aimed at making technical and vocational education more flexible, of a higher quality and capable of responding better and more rapidly to the needs of the labour market while, at the same time, improving cost and efficiency. To some extent, the urgency to reform TVET has been related to the delivery pattern and the capacity of provision systems to successfully integrate young people into the workforce.
There are three dominant models for organising vocational education and training. Most countries have a primarily school-based model. Typically, this education is provided in specific schools or colleges with workshops for the practical training. In order to get more ?real-life? experience, placements for shorter or longer periods in enterprises are often arranged through work-experience programmes. In some countries, vocational courses are offered in comprehensive schools attended both by students aiming for university entrance and those wanting a skilled worker?s certificate for the world of work.
The second category includes countries with a company-based model through apprenticeship. Apprenticeship-contracts are normally signed after completion of lower secondary. Education and training alternate between theoretical education in a school context and practical training in an enterprise. Typically, about 50-70% of the time is spent in the enterprise for work and practical training. The rest of the time is spent on general education and theory related to specific vocational fields.
In a third model, delivery systems combine school-based vocational education and apprenticeship. In this formula, the first one or two years of upper secondary vocational education is/are full-time school-based. Emphasis is put on broad-based practical and theoretical education within wide vocational fields and general subjects. This period is followed by apprenticeship for another two years of practical occupation-related company-based training. This model is an attempt to combine advantages of the school-based model (to give the broad based knowledge and skills) and of the enterprise-based model (to provide skills and attitudes expected by the employers and to facilitate the school to work transition).
Of course, in reality, delivery patterns are much more diversified, and many countries offer variations of the three models. In spite of organisational differences and priorities among countries, it is possible to identify common trends and priorities based on international experience. Increasingly, TVET is placed in a lifelong learning perspective. In this framework, validation and recognition of non-formal and informal learning are given particular attention. The integration of vocational and general skills forms another trend followed by many countries. Whilst occupation-related content is made broader, more emphasis is placed on academic knowledge and transversal skills such as social skills, entrepreneurial skills and computer literacy. The search for greater articulation of TVET with the rest of the education system often constitutes another priority. It involves facilitating access to higher education for TVET graduates. This structural change is also meant to upgrade the social status of vocational education, not only among the youth and their parents, but also in the academic world.
When trying to understand TVET policies, economic rationale forms an immediate area of attention. In industrialised countries the emergence of a TVET system was a direct response of the growing needs for a qualified workforce in a context of economic growth and structural transformation. Today again, the rapid and deep transformation affecting the labour market constitutes the first motivation to strengthen skill provision. As a result of the large-scale dissemination of information technologies in production processes, economies tend to require more qualified labour. It is assumed that most of the jobs being lost as a result of labour market restructuring are concentrated among the low-skilled, whereas many of the new jobs require a good education and skills. The dominant rhetoric on economic development suggests that modern societies move towards a knowledge economy, where success depends increasingly on information and human capital. It is then argued that sustaining growth will require a rise in the qualification level of the workforce.
In reality, in many countries the skills gap first concerns ?intermediate skills?. If one accepts that better qualified workers tend to be more flexible, technological change is likely to increase the relative demand for skills during a transitional period. It is those sorts of qualifications that are produced by technical and vocational education, including company-based training.
Besides growth and technological change, the transformation of the nature of work has a deep impact on skill needs. At the root of these changes are new ways of organizing production and work. The end of Taylorism and the emergence of flexible forms of specialization have had a double effect on both the form and content of work. Employers today are expecting greater autonomy, initiative, responsibility and communication skills. In educational terms, this implies more advanced general training, including technical and vocational graduates. The demand for versatility and adaptability also argues in favour of broadening and raising the level of qualifications.
While this vision may well capture the reality of fast growing economies (e.g. East and South Asia), it does not reflect the complexity of labour market structures in less developed countries where various levels of technological development coexist. In such a context, more persuasive analysis about technology and work argues that each level of technological development favours different skills. In many low-income countries, where most of the jobs are located in the informal economy, training policies need to recognise this reality and to come up with innovative responses, often outside the formal technical education system.
Besides the search for economic competitiveness, across the world, youth unemployment remains a sensitive issue. In a context of global education expansion, early school leavers face an increased risk of exclusion. School to work transition constitutes an active domain of public policies.
In most countries, young people still face serious difficulties in integrating into the labour market. The transition from school to work issue takes place within a context where young people are staying longer at school as a result of education expansion. The ?drop?out? issue tends to be more serious today since, in many countries, secondary education has become a must in order to access a good job.
During the 1990s the international policy debate on education was predominantly focused on basic education and Education for All (EFA). Little attention was placed on vocational skills, TVET systems were often considered as obsolete, inefficient instruments. This view affected many donor agencies and guided their support away from vocational skills development. Following the ongoing debate on the contribution of skills development to EFA and to poverty reduction, the focus placed on youth transitions in the recently published World Development Report 2007 (World Bank, 2006) may contribute to a new interest in TVET among countries, donors and young people.
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